MAO - A Sword Art Online AU - Lazy Dragons
by Sherlock D Holmes
Summary: Martial Arts Online, the first ever VRMMORPG was developed by genius Akihiko Kayaba. A few months after the closed beta test of the game, it was released with a first batch of around 30,000 units. Join as they all get trapped, with the fates of 30,000 players hanging on the hands of the only few strong players in the game. Can Ryuuma do it? Can he become a hero? 1st ever fic
1. Chapter 1 - The Land Of Fighting

_7:00 AM_

 _Ikebukuro, Tokyo_

Today was the day. Today was the day the much-awaited world's first VRMMORPG known as Martial Arts Online would finally get released. The game, building up hype for the past 5 years, has finally been released in select few Japanese game shops. Me being the early planner that I am, camped outside the doors of 'Super Potato Ikebukuro' for 16 full hours before getting a copy of the game for both me and my sister. _This would be it,_ I thought. _This will finally be the day my sister gets to walk again._ Running home as fast as I could after getting the game, I noticed just how long the entire queue was. _Holy shit that's long,_ I thought to myself. My camping experience really wasn't that superfluous now that I think about it. Finally spotting the hotel where my sister and I would live for the rest of the week, I quickly ran into the building. It was Sakura hotel. Although pricey, it was worth it, for I've heard that the cleaners don't disturb there, and I've got no time for disturbance while playing.

I thought of the people in the line. They weren't your average gamers, oh no, sir. The demographical gender-group for MAO was more one-sided. So many polls dictated that 78.2% of all MAO players were male, and of that percentage, 70% are in their late teenage to early their twenties. Most of the players were most likely delinquents, as most average geeks shied away from the game after realizing how painful and dangerous it looked. With a pain dampener at around 65%, most people wouldn't risk feeling pain in a video-game at all. The result was a game packed to the brim with bullies, delinquents, and criminals. There were, of course, some nerds playing, and there was also a significant amount of professional fighters from dojos all over the world playing. I walked up the stairs, greatly fatigued by this. At that moment, I wondered if I could create a body so strong, I could run like the shinobi of Naruto.

As I unlocked the door to our room, I saw my sister still sleeping on her bed, with her wheelchair next to her. I walked up to the wheelchair and stared at it.

"We're not gonna need you where we're going", I told it in a ridiculous attempt to spite it. We'd been through a lot, and that wheelchair has aways been giving me shit. At the airport, in bus stations, when we want to go to places that only had staircases. That wheelchair was the epitome of douchebags.

"Hey, don't talk to my wheelchair like that!", my sister suddenly said revealing that I woke her up. She scared me half to death, but I believe that was mostly because of the fact that I was so hyped for the moment. After quickly recovering from my shock, I grabbed the plastic bag containing the culmination of all my hype over the past years. The reason why I both learnt AND taught my little sister Japanese.

"Enough English and sleep, nee-chan", I told her in half English, half Japanese as I was fishing out the two headgears and both the games I bought with it. "Today, history will be written. We can't afford to sleep for any longer." I continued on while trying to open the clamshell packages that seemed harder to open than a bank vault. "It's exactly 5 hours and 35 minutes until the servers are opening. Before that, we'll have to log in the users we made in the website, take the personality survey to determine which martial art we get and then we- _dammit these clamshell packages should have died out decades ago-_ ehrm, and then we're all set, after we calibrate by patting your body. I'll help you with that." I finished as I finally managed to open the package. I walked up to her and sat her on her wheelchair. I rolled her to the closest ethernet port. I crouched over and plugged the ethernet cable inside the port and gave my sister the helmet for her to put on. Although diving right now wouldn't allow us to play the game any faster, it would, at least, prepare us to dive straight into the game once the servers were opened.

"So watch the video and pat yourself. If the person in the video wants you to pat any of your bodily extremities that you can't reach, just ask me for help," I told her. She promptly began patting her body, asking me for help when she needed it. After finally completing that, I layed her down on her bed, completely straight.

"Alright, now you say link start after checking the icons on the HUD. Any errors?" I ask her before she says the magic words.

"Nah, so can I say it yet?", she asked me impatiently. She had waited so long for this, so who am I to tell her to slow down?

"Alright, say it. After you pat your body and take the survey, simply log out, kay?" I asked.

"Alright, boss", she replied. Now more anxious than ever.

"Link... START", she shouted. Immediately getting knocked out by the Nerve-Gear.

"Now, time for daddy to get a piece of that VR action", I said to no one in particular, not realizing how perverted that sounded. I quickly set up my gear and patted down before laying down on my bed. I looked into my visor and checked the icons on the HUD before saying the magical words.

"Link start!", I shouted with using all the air stored in my lungs. Suddenly all I saw were colors and polygons whizzing past my eyes. It was a peculiar feeling. I couldn't move anything, mostly because there was nothing to move. Suddenly I felt my body materialize right before a button titled 'play game'. I click that one, only to do the Martial Art personality correspondency test. After answering about a hundred questions related to my personality, I get a few options of which to choose from: Muay Thai, Savate, Tae Kwon Do and Tong Il Moo Doo. Aw, sweet, I get to pick Tae Kwon Do! That was the skill that I originally set out to get, so I was happy with the options. I picked Tae Kwon Do, and was refused any further access into the game before the servers started opening.

 _12:40 noon_

 _Sakura Hotel, Ikebukuro, Tokyo_

I reread the booklet that came with the game for the 76th time. I now know all of the martial arts that are available in the game, as well as some basic background info about the setting and about the company that first patented the Nerve-Gear tech. My sister, still watching TV up until this point, groaned: "what time is it" for the sixteenth time.

"12:41. Still 19 minutes left til the servers open. Honestly, are we actually going to find something fun to before the release?", I asked her flustered.

"There's probably nothing that can top this, dontcha think?", she replied in a bored tone.

"True. I swear, if this clock doesn't go any faster, I might just kill myself right now", I exclaimed loudly. Words cannot explain how long I've waited for the stupid servers to open. Earlier at around 8 am, we were both really excited for what's to come. Alice would finally get to walk, and it would be because I made it possible for her. We discussed our fighting styles - She got Kickboxing, and I got Tae Kwon Do.

"Oh lord, it's 12:42 why is this taking so damn looong?!", I shouted to no one in particular.

"Why don't you just wait?", she replied although I can't remember that I ever said that I was speaking to her at the time.

"Easy for you to say. You always wait. Wait for people to carry you, wash you, feed you, work for you, and the list goes on", I replied.

"Not funny... when we enter the game, I'll show you just how furious I can get. You just watch your back, boy", she said in an ominous tone. The usage of the word _boy_ took me by surprise.

"lol, we'll just have to wait and see", I told her.

"Who the hell still says 'lol' in this day and age? Go back to the 2000s, the future has no need for you", was her comeback. Not a weak one, in particular, although she sure does know how to harass people psychologically if she wanted to. Right now just wasn't her time. She was just way too hyped for this to care about devising great lines for the sole reason of hurting my feelings. We continued arguing for a few minutes before I, realizing that we might have talked ourselves past the servers opening, checked my watch.

"12:58, get your stuff ready", I yelled as I quickly pushed her wheelchair next to her bed and carried her off to her bed to lay her down perpendicularly. I did the same thing. I prepared everything for her before the moment and we were both staring at the HUD built in the visor in the helmet.

"First one who says the magic words when the clock strikes 13:00 pm gets a cookie", I said, trying to lighten the tension. We were both waiting in bated breaths as we monitored the clocks like a vulture monitors its prey. As the clock hit 13:00, we both said the magic words.

 **"LINK START",** said the both of us, a split second later getting knocked out cold by the Nerve-Gear transporting us to what would quickly turn out to be a harsh battle of life and death. The routine whizzing of different colors and polygons made me feel a bit giddy. I saw the play button and quickly pressed it by simply wishing it to be pressed this time. Before the game could be played, there was character creation. _DAMMIT, I FORGOT ABOUT IT!_ Me being the non-vain person that I was, I simply settled for a taller version of myself, simply so I could run faster. _I mean, I already look badass as myself, right? hehe._ After around a minute of two of sculpting that handsome face of mine, I clicked continue and chose my nickname. Tony Adams doesn't seem to sound like a nice nickname, despite it being my name, so I simply went for Ryuuma. Simple, strong and badass, and also because it's based off a character from my all-time favorite anime. After materializing from thin air with an explosion of blue particles, I looked around and saw my sister in the middle of the crowd. _My, oh my, she must have had fun with the Character creation kit._ The most important thing, however, is the fact that she's standing. Not only that, she is walking. After spotting me, she ran to me as fast as she could with her new legs and hugged me, effectively knocking me down. A system message quickly came up, wondering if I should send her to jail for her offense in a safe zone.

"Should I click yes or no?", I asked her teasingly.

"Haul me in, officer", she pleaded, jokingly. I pressed No and we stood up again. As I was looking around, I noticed we were in an Edo-Period town stuffed with strong looking people wearing different colors of karate gis and other types of martial arts clothes. Apparently my sister has this unrealistically perfect figure 8 body with long hair flowing down to her waist. She wore a black gi but had bandaged hands, most likely something connected with her skill. She also had shortened her sleeves all the way to her armpits, and her eyes were really wide. She had a pretty face, courtesy of mom's DNA. The only thing she changed in the game were her 'proportions'. Meanwhile, I was here with shaggy brown hair, a stubbled chin and wore a Dobok, a Tae Kwon Do gi. It was really baggy, and I felt really comfortable in them, so how could I complain?

"Well, what're we waiting for? Let's get the hell out of here, there's an entire country to explore", I yelled. And so began an adventure not worth forgetting.


	2. Chapter 2 - Egg meets Brick Wall

_The second chapter in a series I've been contemplating on making for like a week or two. I hope you enjoy it._

 _1:15 PM_

 _Town of the beginnings, First Kingdom, MAO_

"Wait up!", I yelled to my sister who was already accustomed to her new set of legs. _Hm, I guess she never even forgot how to walk._ I tried running after her as quickly as I could, but this new height is just extremely disorienting. My avatar is 190 cm, while my sister's is 180 cm, not far from her actual height.

"Oh, I almost forgot", she said as she stopped dead in her tracks. I didn't know why she stopped, so I simply continued until I reached her, but little did I know she was actually charging up a punch. When I finally reached right behind her, she did a complete 180 and punched me in the face. Her retaliation for what I said to her. _Holy sh** this hurts. So I guess they weren't lying when they said that the pain dampeners were only set to 65%, so I only receive 35% of the impact. Imagine if that punch had hit me IRL._ After picking myself up and brushing the dust of my kickass white Tae Kwon Do gi, I had to decline the request of sending my dear sister to jail.

"It's the second time I could have sent you to jail. Try acting a little more like a decent human being for once", I told her. The pain from the punch quickly wore off right before I spotted him. The boy ran through the busy streets like he knew where he was going. _Beta tester. Those guys always know where to get the good stuff._ Not realizing how perverted it sounded, I ran after him. I wanted to check these combat mechanics out in any way I could, so challenging him would be a good idea. Of course, I don't have a snowball's chance in hell of actually beating him. A beta tester VS a scrub that just logged in? Funny. As I ran after him, I heard my sister yelling after me.

"Don't cry, I didn't mean for the punch to be that hard!", she yelled. Dammit, why does she do this? Must I ask for her permission for her not to publicly humiliate me in any way she can? I quickly shook it off and appeared right in front of the guy.

"Hey, you seem to know your way around here, you a beta tester?", I asked him. He seemed a bit nervous about this encounter. Perhaps I do have the ability to beat the guy.

"Yeah, I am. The name's Kirito.", the boy replied. He was a tad taller than average and looked to be in his late teens, perhaps 19 or something.

"Good. Name's Ryuuma. I challenge you to a fight right here, right now!", I told him sternly. I tried to appear strong in front of him so as to intimidate him a little. I already got this laid ahead of me. If he accepts, we fight. If he declines, I'll use the fact that he's declining a request from a noob to fight and tell everyone.

"You sure you wanna do this?", he asked me, his face revealing an incredulous expression.

"A man seeks to fight in any way he can", I told him, trying to muster up all the gusto I had stored in my heart.

"Sure, sending you a request right now", replied. I saw the request pop right in front of my eyes and clicked accept. The setting was fight until 30% hp remained. The match was to begin in around 30 seconds. Me being the impatient guy that I am, tried to further the time by staring at his stance. He had his left arm bent with his elbow behind his head and fist right next to his left ear, with his right arm stretched infront of him with a slight bend with the palm facing upwards, with his legs placed fairly far from each other. _Oh, dear. What was I thinking? This guy's gonna cream me for sure._ I was in a typical Tae Kwon Do stance with my fists raised, and legs in the right place. 3... 2... 1... GO.

The fight started with Kirito continuously having at me with some seriously quick punches. I tried blocking most of them, but then I remembered, I'm a basement dwelling rpg geek. I'm not built to fight. Sure, I've watched plenty of underdogs get inexplicable powerups in animes and whatnot, but that's it. They're fictional. I'm real, but Krilin isn't. Mumen rider isn't real. Goku isn't real. The speed in which this guy is punching me definitely isn't real. Unreal was this entire experience. Needless to say, I lost that match, with my entire body aching like nothing else. Those pain dampeners do a s*** job. In a complete summary of the fight, it started with Kirito lunging at me, then repeatedly punching most of my face and torso. I successfully blocked a few of them, but I also tried to attack back, but the punches ultimately got blocked or stopped mid-track by punch to my arm out of nowhere. I tried fighting on to the very last, but ultimately, my K.O was a perfect, completely 1-sided. I didn't even make a scratch on him. After trying to stand up after my thorough assbeating, I walked up to him and tried to shake his hands. After contemplating the choices he had, he went for the least offensive one and simply grabbed it and we went closer for a shoulder bump after I got a nice grip of his hand.

"Try not to focus too much on the technicality's, Ryuuma-kun. The reason I beat you was obviously because you just joined the game, right? If you get your initial motion right, then the system will guide the attack, but it's up to you to time it and aim it correctly. All martial art styles contain a different set of initial motions for different skills. Once you learn about them in books or by trainers or simply as it gets shared by other players, you're good to go. I picked Kung Fu for my skill so I'm afraid I can't really help you with your skill.", he stated. I was very grateful for actually being given some good advice, something the MAO booklet failed to inform me about.

"Alright, friend. Thank you so much for your advice, man. You're awesome. Stay safe, Bruce Lee", I told him. He gave me a gentle smile and scratched his hair out of shyness most likely.

"Hehe, thanks. See you", he said, wishing to part ways, now.

"Before you go, please accept my friend request", I asked, although now that I think about it, it did seem pretty fangirly.

"Oh, I never saw it. I'm so sorry", he told me as he went through his menu to accept the friend request. After accepting it, we parted ways. After around 30 meters or so, some pink-haired weirdo ran after him. I simply ignored it and continued on to try and find my sister so we can get to some bookshop and find a skill book so we won't remain noobs.

"Oh color me surprised, I didn't know you sucked at fighting that much. 'A man seeks to fight in any way he can' huh? No, you seek to get your ass handed to you in any way you can", Alice told me as she appeared out of nowhere.

"Oh, there you are. I was wondering if you ran of somewhere. Damn, we need to find a good way to track each other. I got an idea, let's just party up.", I told her. She really doesn't like playing games and this is the first game she has ever enjoyed. Needless to say, what I told her went straight over her head.

"What? No, thanks. I'd rather play than party after this. In fact, don't ask me to leave the game. I'll log out somewhere around tomorrow afternoon", she replied, obviously not getting what I tried to say.

"Nevermind. You just do what the screen tells you. Click accept when it appears", I told her as I sent a request to her e-mail.

"When what appear- oh...", she realized as dialogue box prompted her to either accept or decline. She quickly pressed accept and now we were linked by the game system.

"What the... You called yourself Arisu?", I asked her perplexed. She just went with a romanized hepburn version of her real name? _That's... surprisingly clever, sis._

"Why is your name 'Ryuuma'? It's probably from some fighting anime right? Bonus point if it has pirates.", she asked. Little did she know that she was actually pretty spot on. The name does come from a character in an anime largely concerning piracy.

"Alright, enough. We're in a party so we literally can't lose each other now. Let's head out, gang!", I said to the one person in my so-called 'gang'.

 _2:00 pm_

We still didn't find any shop that sold any skill books, so I proposed to go outside and explore the first kingdom. Apparently the game differs from a conventional RPG in that there's no magic and sword skills. Only hand-to-hand based combat is allowed. This world known as Aincrad contains 100 different 'corrupt' kingdoms in a floor based system. To liberate a kingdom or floor if you will, then you must defeat the king of the kingdom in a fair 1v1 duel. Then there's also all of the king's goons to worry about. This is why the game has a guild system, although the official name for it is Clan System. It allows one to create their own Clan that works exactly like any other conventional guild. This is what I'm aiming to create. I will make a Clan with my sis and some other friends that I'll scoop up on my way. I'll be the first to defeat the corrupt king of this Kingdom, named Illfang the Kobold, a fat and vile tyrant that wears a dog mask. This was the most basic information that any beta tester or info booklet could give, so it's no wonder why I know it so much. After an hour of searching in this surprisingly big town, we finally found a bookstore containing all the basic skillsets. They were free so we simply grabbed them and went on. After getting the hang of at least one skill we finally set out to the outside of the city to try them on random mobs, but first I had to explain what mobs are to everyone's favorite noob.

"So they're basically really mean humans or animals that are also not real in the real world?", she asked. Since it was the closest thing to what I actually meant, I conceded.

"Sure, whatever", I replied snarkily. We followed a path to the outside of a town. The gate was basically a really big and decorated version of a Japanese arc.

"So, if we walk out through these gates, we'll be killable? Why would I want that, death seems like a nuisance here", the Noob of noobs told me. She obviously doesn't know how any of this works.

"Look, do you want to get strong or not? cuz this is the only way to get strong in games like these, and plus, I wanna try out these moves on a moving target.

"Fine, whatever. Just don't cry if a player killer washes the floor with your ass". _Classy._ After heading out for a while, we finally spotted some rabbits on the distance. These weren't your average run of the mill rabbits, oh no, sir. These were _Fighting Rabbits._ They seemed to be standing at a staggering height of 150 cm. There was nothing else special about it other than they being bipedal.

"They look adorable, aww 3" was all our resident noob could say before running of to one to hug it and grab it. Little did she know that those mobs weren't the friendliest kind.

"NO, THOSE AREN'T FRIENDS!", I yelled before running as fast as I could. As the 3 other mobs that accompanied the first rabbit got aggrevated, all that was left to do was run.

"Oh? Huh, fine then. I'll get money from killing these things, so I'm fine, regardless", she said as arced her back backwards so the rabbit hit the ground head first. It was a 1-hit K.O. They mostly occur if a neck or other vital body parts lose durability, or HP. I simply stood there agape, wondering if that's even kickboxing, or that she was just improvising, without the system's aid. After the K.O, the rabbits went after me. _Piece of cake,_ I thought. They're just rabbits and their paws can't possibly hurt. As one of them came close, I prepared to kick it. I charged a sidesweep kick, but the rabbit simple jumped over it and held his left elbow parallel to the plane of the back of his head, with his fist next to his left ear, and his right arm bent slightly straight in front of him. I immediately thought of Kirito's stance when I saw it. Time seemed to stop as I saw the rabbit floating above the leg that I used to unsuccessfully kick it. The rabbit took advantage of my inability to do anything after the sidesweep kick and gave me an open palm slam right in my cheek. The small area of the paw, coupled with the fact that there was so much force behind the attack, sent me skidding across the grassfield. It was in an area with tall, uncut grass, so the rabbit made use of it by crawling under it. The grass was waist long, so it was hard to know where the rabbits would show up. Out of nowhere, the 3 rabbits all jumped out of the grass and they all took turns in slamming my face with their paws and legs WHILE airborne. I was hit from every corner, so when I recoiled from one hit, another one would be waiting for me right behind me. I watched my HP bar drop to the red, before my sister finally thought it a good idea to help me.

"Hey, dumb rabbits, over here! I killed your brother!", she yelled. She attracted the aggro, so I was spared, but my face was still sore as hell. This has been the third time today where I've been pwned. I'm really starting to hate this game, but I'm only gonna log out after my sister does. I'm responsible for her, so I've got to see this through. After they arrived, my sister used a block with her quick reflexes, then grabbed one of the airborne rabbits while still in the air by the neck. She pulled it in so she could have a good grip on the head. She twisted, and the rabbit died instantly and exploded into a bunch of blue polygons. 2 left. She took the standard kickboxing stance, and right after the rabbit jumped in front of her, attempting the same exact combo that took me out of commission. She learned from my mistake and attacked only right after it jumped. A charged punch sent the rabbit skidding across the field with minimal health. The grass it was skidding through completely flattened, revealing a path straight from the rabbit, to my sister. I looked at it, stood up and stomped it before it broke out of its stun. Although she did the most damage, I got the kill, and as a result, all the exp and col with it. As there was only one rabbit that remained, it tried to ambush my sister, as she didn't realize that there was a last one. After eating some healing ingredients I found in the grass, I healed up only enough to grab the rabbit that suddenly, out of nowhere, tried to R.K.O my sister. I guess the tables have turned. Because I wanted to learn more about my martial arts, I simply threw it up and timed a side sweep kick right on the face of the rabbit.

"GG", I said, trying to sound badass. In truth, it just sounded really pretentious and nerdy. We continued on before we spotted the pink-haired guy from earlier and Kirito, my rival.

 _ **Thank you, ViceetVirtus, for the review 3**_


	3. Chapter 3 - The Beginning Of The End

_14:30 PM_

 _First kingdom_

I walked over to them to see what they were up to, but they were dispatching some Fighting Rabbits with some serious ease. The pink-haired guy was yelling some weird war-cries that seemed pretty damn superfluous. When they finally noticed me, the pink-haired guy raised his fists.

"Relax, we're friendly", I told him in an attempt to relax him. I've never been the type to kill other players for the hell of it, and much less now that their avatars are so much more responsive and immersive. Hmm, I wonder if the amount of immersion there is in a game is inversely proportional to the magnitude of which you would act out of character. A thought for another day. The pink-haired guy lowered his fists as I approached Kirito.

"Hey, I really didn't think I would see you so soon, again. You know, since there are 30,000 other players in the server", I said as an attempt to ice-break. I've never really been adept in social stuff though I've had friends before. _Damn, I'm beginning to sound like an NPC._

"You never know. How've you been holding up? Any deaths yet?", he asked me with a gentle smile on his lips.

"Not really, although I did come close. I rescued my sister from some rabid _Fighting Rabbits_ earlier today", I bluffed. Well, it's a half truth. She was almost attacked from behind by one, and I just happened to be there to save her from losing a bit of HP.

"Ah, really know? You do know that the Fighting Rabbits are at the same power level as slimes in other RPGs," was what Kirito replied. I kinda got that when I saw how low their levels are. The ones I fought were in the level 1-5 range.

"Aw, really? And here I thought they were mid-level bosses!" an angry pink-haired weirdo shouted. Is he retarded, or was he just joking. Mid-level bosses don't look like rabbits and are definitely not as weak as these ones. After the outburst, he found it rude that he hadn't introduced himself yet. Typical Japanese culture, I simply love it.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, my name is Klein, nice to meet you", he told us. He was a pink-haired guy with an above average height and wore a red karate gi. Hmm, perhaps he's a karate practitioner.

"My name is Ryuuma, but you can call me Ryu for short, or Ryu-sama," I said, trying to seem cool, but that has never really been my powerhouse, especially with people I just meet. By the looks of it, they were both fighting the Rabbits, but it looked like it was Kirito who taught him. That bastard, he said he couldn't teach me anything, and that guy sure as hell isn't doing Kung Fu.

"So hey, Klein, what's your martial arts skill?" I asked trying not to sound needy or anything. I just wanted to know if Kirito was holding out on me because I came so close to beating him last time. Wait, no I didn't, he wiped the floor with me!

"My skill is Karate, but it's similar to Kung Fu, so Kirito is teaching me some skills," he said. That explained it.

"You guys mind if we grind with you?" I asked.

"No, not at all. The field is large enough for all of us," he said. Well, that was a relief. At least, they don't hate me right of the bat, which is the least I can say for others who have just met me. What came after that was hours of training in the fields fighting those pesky Fighting Rabbits, and the occasional Pugilist Hare, another type of mob from an altered model of the Fighting Rabbit that was pitch black, and had actual human hands instead of paws, but their level range is from around 6-10. A dangerous mob for low-level players like us, but we've got our beta-tester Kirito here, so no need to worry.

 _17:15_

 _First Kingdom, Grasslands_

"It's beautiful, you know", I said lying on the grass looking at the sunset in the horizon. It was in a beautiful orange hue, with an orange-red sky dotted with almost visible stars. It was truly a beautiful sight.

"Yeah, and we all got Akihiko Kayaba to thank for", Kirito added. Akihiko Kayaba, the creator of the Nerve-Gear and the developer of MAO. We were all lying on the grass next to each other while watching the sun set deep into the night, but Kirito was sitting on the ground next to us. Suddenly we heard a stomach rumble, which made us all burst out of laughter. The only one not laughing was Klein.

"You should eat something, you know", I told him.

"What's the point. It won't satisfy my real life hunger anyway," he replied sadly.

"Well, yeah. It's a shame it can't satisfy real life hunger," was what Kirito added.

"Well, you're right, and that's the reason why I ordered pizza for 17:30!" he yelled proudly.

"Wow, you got this covered," Kirito said incredulously. Ah, I should have done that too.

"Hey, Kirito. My buddies and I are thinking of playing another game after this. You feel like joining us?" Klein said abruptly. This apparently made Kirito a little uneasy. He stuttered a bit before trying to answer but was cut off by a well-meaning Klein.

"It's alright if you don't want to. Hey, no pressure," he said, quickly reassuring Kirito. All the while, I was just lying there watching the sunset, while my sister stood up and continued fighting the Fighting Rabbits. The sunset reminded me of halcyon days gone by as a child wandering around my entire suburb area. The place felt like a jungle to me, with new adventures every day, and friends to share the experiences with. Back when I actually had a good social life. I would do anything to relive those days, but if I can do just that in this game, then I might just start appreciating it. I continued staring into the distant sunset, observing the distant grasslands that seemed to be stretching eternally towards the end of the world. It was simply stunning.

"Anyways, I'm probably really hungry, and the game can wait until I get my pizza on!" was all Klein said before logging off. Or it was what he said before attempting to log off. "Huh, where'd the logout button go?" was all it took to wake me up from my daze. I quickly swiped my fingers through the air to open up the menu and went down to the system menu. There was a log out button, alright, but it was grayed out kind of like it was disabled. Man, out of all bugs that this game could possibly have, is the logout button going to be the one to be affected?

"What? It's supposed to be down in the system menu," Kirito replied anxiously. He opened the menu and saw the grayed out log out button. By the looks of it, he must have never seen or encountered any issue like this in the beta. Something must be up. My mind immediately shifted to Akihiko Kayaba's famous quote: "Martial Arts Online isn't a game you play. It's a game you live". No, something must be up, a bug like this can't possibly just occur simply due to a glitch in the system, and it can definitely not be this ubiquitous that even other players experience it. From my amount of experience amassed from years of playing RPGs, bugs simply don't work that way, unless this was a server mistake, which made me think that messing up that hard has got to be an achievement.

"Hey, Alice," I yelled so she could hear me over the sound of her kickboxing the rabbits over and over again, gaining levels by the hour. "Can you log out? You open the menu and go down to the system menu. There's a logout button, but can you log out?!" I yelled. She immediately stopped what she did and took a breather before looking up

"Alright, then. Hmm, I've already reached level 5, I guess I can take a break," she said as she swiped the menu and scrolled down to press log out. With an indifferent facial expression, she asked me what has got to be the question of the year.

"Well, I can see the logout button, but what do I do now?" Alice, or should I say Arisu asked earnestly.

"Well, you click it, what else?" I replied impatiently. This has got to be some kind of joke, but if this Kayaba guy lost his marbles, then that would be really inconvenient. Worse case scenario is he locks the players up until the police apprehends him and we get freed.

"What did you think I did? It's not responding. I was wondering if I was supposed to activate the button in another way, like with my password or something," was all she had to say. _Using a password to log out, is she fudging kidding me_? By now, it's all but confirmed that there is no way to log out. 4 people all have the same issue, so I'm very sure that this bug is universal.

"Martial Arts Online isn't a game you play, it's a game you live. Well, at least, that's what Kayaba said" I said while staring distantly into the horizon. Klein immediately wore a shocked expression.

"Don't joke around like that," he replied anxiously. I immediately felt guilty for saying what I said.

"What is it, the first day off of beta? There's bound to be some bugs. I bet the server people are freaking out," Klein said in an attempt to cheer himself up and to revert back into his regular state.

"Looks like your pizza will get cold," Kirito said while looking at the clock in his menu. It said 17:30. Immediately after he said that, as if he spoke some magical words that teleported us, we appeared right in the plaza where we all started. After the explosion of blue sparkles everywhere, 10,000 players were summoned in the exact same area, most likely by an admin, or GM, a Game Master in Japanese gaming culture lingo. After a few seconds, a dome was formed over the plaza, and red hexagonal tiles appeared on the surface with text reading 'WARNING' and 'GAME MASTER' in alternating turns. Out from the spaces in between the tiles seeped some red, viscous liquid that could only be described as blood colored yogurt. The liquid all attracted into a center and a blob of this red liquid was formed. After a few seconds, the blob was large enough to take on a gigantic cloaked form. The form was of a gigantic man wearing a red hooded cloak that went well under his feet. The eery thing about him was that there was no one inside the cloak. The inside of the hood was black as night, and there were no hands jutting out of the sleeves. Only white gloves that were worn by nothing.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Martial Arts Online. My name is Akihiko Kayaba, the creator of the Nerve-Gear and the game. By now, you must have realized that the logout button is not working," Kayaba began. This is it. Tell me if you're joking around or not. Tell me if it's just a stupid prank or something.

"I can assure you, this is not a bug or glitch, but a feature. I repeat, this is not a defect in the game,". Gasps were heard all over the place, and some were even yelling at the cloaked figure.

"This was how Martial Arts Online was planned to be. You can not log out of the game, and no one from the outside world can log you out or shut down the Nerve-Gear manually. If an attempt has been made to unplug or remove the headgear manually, a microwave transmitter inside the helmet will instantaneously send a violent microwave to your brain, thereby destroying it, ending your life in this world and the other," he explained so matter of factly. Now an uproar was heard in the crowd. People were pushing around causing tiny riots. The riots grew in an exponential rate until Kayaba was forced to use a paralysis command on all players, leaving even the docile ones thudding on the floor. Although the pain was greatly reduced, a feeling of helplessness washed over me. It made sense, though. The headgear had a microwave transmitter that was used to connect the brain to the game.

"Many people, despite my many warnings, have attempted to remove the headgears of the heads of the players, thus ending the lives of 213 players. Because of this, we are now 29,787. These deaths have been reported as breaking news, so the chances of you dying are minimal to say the least. I hope this can bring some comfort while playing the game," he added. It seemed surreal to say the least. _We can't leave the game? What's going to happen to us?_ All I was praying for was that we could still be resurrected, although I knew the chances were slim. If he actually did this for his own entertainment, then raising the stakes by giving all players one life would certainly please his needs. Although I knew it would come, I hoped it wouldn't.

"Also, there is no longer any way to resurrect anyone if they die in the game. Once the HP bar drops to 0, the character will be deleted from this game and a microwave is sent to your brain. The only way to leave the game is by ascending through all the 100 kingdoms and beating all the bosses in the game. Once the 100th boss is beaten, there will be an option to log everyone out of the game," he continued. My mind quickly remembered the Fighting Rabbits. Although low-level creatures, they came dangerously close to killing me. Imagine if they do, in fact, kill me. I quickly shook the thought of my mind, and tried to think, but my brain was completely clouded with arguing thoughts. I had to pull myself together. As I fought the crippling paralysis as hard as I could, I managed to turn my head to the right to get a better look on my sister. After finishing what he said, he typed in a command that unfroze all of us.

"And lastly, I left a present in your storage inventory. Please, have a look", he said sternly. I quickly stood up and swiped my hand through the air and checked my inventory. If it was additional information, I would gladly welcome it. There's nothing like too much information in a situation like this. What it turned out to be, however, was something so innate, so stupid and so irrelevant that I almost ripped my hair off my scalp. It was a mirror. There was really nothing special about it, but when I looked into it, blue sparkles surrounded me and I felt like I shrunk a few inches. I looked back into the mirror and saw the same exact face, but my height was reduced to my real life one. I thought nothing of it until I started looking around. A guy with pink hair calling my name. He looked different, but also the same as Klein. Oh, God. It was Klein.

"Hey, Ryu, what the hell happened, you've shrunk, but you're still tall!" was all an extremely confused Klein could say.

"What the hell happened to me? WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO YOU?!" was my impatient reply. He looks different, but not worse. In fact, if I do say so myself, he looks a lot more badass now. It was a waste to hide that awesome chin, anyway.

"Guys, I think we turned into our real life appearances," Kirito clarified.

"But, how...? AH, remember when we had to pat parts of our body before we continued into the game?" I added. That must have been where the game got the physical data from, but the face. That one makes no sense.

"But what about the face, huh? We didn't touch our face while doing the patting," I continued. This is weird, no this is beyond weird. This is surreal, bizarre. Something straight out of Tim Burton while tripping on LSD with the makers of Salad Fingers.

"The Nerve-Gear has high-strength microwaves that can detect the terrain of one's face. It isn't that hard. It must be utilizing the Doppler effect to map the depths and protrusions of our face, then registering it as game data like some kind of sonar," Kirito explained again. Kirito looks a lot shorter now, and he is also more childish-looking, with bigger eyes and chubbier cheeks than his original avatar. I placed him at an age range of 13-15 and at a height of at least 5' 8''. To think that this kid managed to beat the living daylight out of me is simply unthinkable.

"What's the point, why would anyone do this?!" Klein winced nervously. I really couldn't answer that, despite my apparent knowledge of people's behavior.

"I think he's about to tell us," Arisu said as he was pointing at the Game Master with a shaky hand. She was right, for he was just about to begin talking again.

"By now you're probably thinking 'why'? 'Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Martial Arts Online and Nerve-Gear do this?" he said, making a point of not omitting his achievements. _I mean, why not add them to your name, too? Perhaps people will start to like you a tad bit more after you just admitted you caused 213 deaths in a single day._

"The answer is simple. I did it to control the fate of the world of my own design", he revealed.

"K-Kayaba," Kirito spat out with disgust.

"And as you can see, I have achieved my goal. This marks the end of the tutorial and the official release of Martial Arts Online. Players, I wish you the best of luck." he concluded and thus disappeared inside the in-betweens of the tiles he seeped out from. It took a few moments for the players to react to all this, but ultimately they did.

"Run," I whispered. Just before I said that I remembered something terrible. Upon the official release, 10,000 players were selected from different Dojos and training studios around Japan to enter and participate in the grand event that was to revolutionize the martial arts world. They were all either masters or the top of the class, and one Dojo or training studio were allowed to have 20 people represent them, but they had to be the most skillful in their craft. If 10,000 skilled and lethal fighters even IRL start to panic, it would be safe to say that the pain dampeners wouldn't be effective at all.

"RUN!" I repeated, dragging my sister, Klein, and Kirito with me. As they understood just how grand the situation was, they ran with me, with Kirito nearly outrunning all of us. We ran until we reached a quiet alleyway, and took a breather there.

"Before we do or say anything else, I want it to be made clear that this might as well be real life. We should take this as seriously as possible, for it is our new reality now," I informed them. They all nodded and stood there silently before Kirito broke the silence.

"What we have to do is to grind. Since we already know that the Fighting Rabbits are low-level mobs, we should take on them, first, but there is only so much exp and mobs to go around. Let's head to another village where there are few to no people around, then begin our training. This is life or death," Kirito stated. It was a good plan, and I was more than happy to go with it. My sister was still a bit shaky, but was the highest level player in our unofficial group, so she took solace in that.

"Dude, I've got friends still at the plaza. They may have safely made it out, but I can't just leave them like this. Don't worry about us, anyway, we're not asking to tag along. I just can't go with you, but with what you've taught me today, we'll be fine," Klein replied. Apparently, Klein had other friends to worry about, nothing wrong with that.

"Well, then. You stay safe, Klein. If you end up in trouble or anything, don't hesitate to call me," was all Kirito could say in a shaky voice. Kirito actually seemed shaken by the revelation.

"Your avatar, it suits you. Much cuter this way," Klein said, trying to tease Kirito a little after a short while of silence.

"Ah, yeah? Well, you're scruffy face suits you way better too, 100%" Kirito replied. Klein then waved goodbye as he rounded the corner.

"Alright, I know all the places where we shouldn't go, so it'll be a safe journey, trust me, guys," he told us. We knew we could trust him, judging by all the times he fought with us with those Rabbits. After laying out our plan, we ran out with Kirito in the lead. We finally reached the end of the city and ran along the path in between the grasslands to a path that would take us to the other village after this one aptly named Hope, a simple village with an inn and a few taverns and shops. After we ran out, 3 Pugilist hares spawned right in front of our path. One, for each one of us. As they ran after us with both arms behind them with fists pointing on the ground behind them, like the way ninjas run in Naruto, they leaped for an areal attack. We stopped dead on our tracks and attacked them before they attacked us, and killed them in one punch. This surprised me, but there was no time for surprises, now. We kept running, completely dependent on our guide, Kirito. I will survive this. I will remain victorious.

* * *

 **A.N: Ryuuma is a scrawny and skinny person that's 6 feet, and has little to no muscle mass, but that's gonna change after a few weeks in-game. He has brown, unkempt hair, and has hazel eyes. I reread the chapters and realized how little I described his person, so I hope this helps.**


	4. Chapter 4 - The Bear and The Viper

_23:16 PM,_

 _First day of MAO_

 _Hope Village, First Kingdom_

"War," Argo stated in a neutral tone. The thought that 'war' would break out sickened me. "After the people calmed down, all the players that had come from actual dojos IRL had banded together to form clans. It's not even a battle for survival anymore. They're too proud for that. This is a battle of winning, a battle of beating the 100th boss, thus claiming the title of the 'Saikyo No Ningen', the strongest human. And, that'll be 5,000 col," she concluded. Of course, I had to get carried away by asking her more questions than necessary. How stupid of me. I opened my menu and my transaction tab and sent the requested funds to the information broker. She wore a black gi with no sleeves and a poncho, and had whiskers on her face, her trademark from the beta, as was what Kirito said. We were both outside in the dead of night, in the corner of the village known as Hope. It was a relatively small village that consisted of a single tavern that also dabbled as an inn, two residential houses and a rice-field overlooked by a farmer that lives in his shack. My sister and Kirito lay asleep as I was having a very educating time with Argo, the famous information broker.

I still needed to know more. I needed to know what type of sharks there were in the aquarium, and how small I am in comparison.

"Who are the strongest players, currently?" I asked her, fully knowing the consequences of the question, although I had money to spare, so I thought nothing of it.

"The Dojo masters from RL are insanely strong, as they already know the base moves without having to go to trainers or refer to any booklet or guide, but they're old. The oldest one around here is 80, but he's reputed to being a beast, a master of the biggest, most successful Karate dojo in China. He's also rumored to be a racist bigot, and is very xenophobic, so he wouldn't like you if he saw, and that'll be 6,000 col," She concluded. As I was being drained by the greedy information broker, I absorbed the information given to me and thought about it for a while. They've got something I don't, skill. I need to be more skilled than them, I need to learn more about my martial art, I need to get used to my new body. I need to be strong, for there are people who depend on that. I finished the transaction while in deep thought, and felt depressed for a second. After a minute, I asked Argo something else.

"Tell me about the lore of this universe," I asked her. It wouldn't do anything to help my current situation, but it would help me ease down by thinking about something else.

"Alright. So this world is set in a feudal Japanese setting, with different climates in each new Kingdom. The kingdoms work this way. Picture a small circle. On the surface of this circle is where we dwell, and that's the first Kingdom. By going through a world gate behind any king's throne, you ascend to a new Kingdom. Now, Picture a shell encompassing the initial circle. On the surface of this shell lies the second kingdom. As the amounts of shells increase, the circumference of each additional shell increases, and this is the same principle with each new kingdom, and thus, it gets harder and harder to find exactly where the corrupt king of the Kingdom resides as the new kingdoms grow more as you go, so there is a larger amount of land that someone has to cover to get to the capital of the kingdom, where the king resides... 100 col, because this info can be found in the booklet anyway," she finally said. I opened the transaction tab to pay her the surprisingly little amount that she had required.

"Anything more?" I asked her. It was vital to exhaust everything so nothing would be left desired.

"Well, the reason we are fighting is because the kingdoms are oppressive. Long ago, the kingdom seized all weapons, captured all blacksmiths and anyone who knew how to work with metal and destroyed them and put the craftsmen in dungeons. This was to reduce civil disobedience and to make the people more docile, but this made them even more riled up. People banded together to learn how to fight with their bare hands. Not long after, any type of weapon was also shunned in the eyes of the people, as it was inferior to the strength and will of a fighter. Civil disobedience grew stronger than ever and people grew detached to their respective kingdoms, and that's where we come into play. We are the revolutionaries, the people that will fight and overthrow the kingdoms so that we may become free, but now, being 'free' meant more than simply clearing the game. Hell, this isn't even a game anymore" she said the last part with a shaky voice. What did I expect? It's not like anyone can recover from such shock like me, anyway, for I lack the key component of being shocked. Actually caring about the consequences. "That'll be 2000 col," she said sternly.

"What?! You said this was information given to you by the booklet!" I yelled. _Oh, no. I'm not planning on getting ripped off now, especially now that I'm so short on cash._

"You made me emotional. It's just fair that I make you pay," she replied. I never thought of it like that. I actually put her in distress, inadvertently. I shut up about it and transacted the requested funds. I yawned a little before turning my back and walking.

"Thank you for your services," I said in a raised voice, waving my hand while not facing her. I headed back to the inn and went back to my futon, reflecting on what happened today. 6 hours ago, I was so stressed I could hardly concentrate, but now I'm just calm. Maybe, just maybe, deep inside, I've always craved for this great escape from reality? Currently, I didn't hate Kayaba. After much thought, and accepting my current situation, I am a bit grateful to him for removing me from the dull everyday reality, and who knows, tomorrow I might crack a few jokes and get my sister to laugh a bit, too. I slept like a brick that night, not bothering to wake up early at all.

* * *

9:23 AM

Hope Village, First Kingdom

I was woken up violently by Arisu, much to my chagrin. I pushed her away from me violently and tried shaking off my sleepiness.

"What time is it?" I asked with drowsiness in my voice. I woke up, surprised that my sister was standing before I finally came too. I remembered everything that unfolded the day before like I remember the face of my mother. I quickly stood up from the futon and stretched for a few seconds before Arisu replied.

"It's 9:25 AM, we gotta train, you know," she said matter-of-factly. This was a sure sign that she had already recovered from her shell-shocked state the night before.

"Seems that you've gone back to your old self," I murmured in a low voice. We walked out of the room and went down to the tavern that was directly downstairs from the living quarters. There waited an agitated Kirito. He immediately saw us as we walked in. He had both his elbows on the table and his left arm rested on the table while the right one was clenched, his chin resting on it. He stared at the table for what might have seemed like several minutes as the silence was unbearably awkward. As if summoned from whatever world he escaped to, his eyes finally regained its life as they rose up, signifying that Kirito was to say something.

"Guys, I don't think that I can stick around with you people," he began. My heart skipped a beat at his words as I began thinking about his importance to our group. After another bout of awkward silence, I was urged to say something.

"And how, might I ask, did you reach this conclusion?" I asked him, trying to suppress the rage welling up inside me.

"I'm dangerous to you. I'm a solo player. Solo players don't think about the people they bring with them. Solo players don't include them in the grand scheme of things. One might say that they are simply egotistical, but really. I just can't really cooperate pretty well when there is more than one person following because it just-" was all he could say before I interrupted his speech.

"Quit your bullshitting," he remained quiet for a few moments while wearing an incredulous facial expression. "Just say you don't want our blood on your hands because the spirit of an adventurer surges through you. It's hard to keep calm, with all that pent up energy, you know. You don't have to restrain yourself for us. You've done enough. If you feel that you can't handle this anymore, then fine. No one is keeping you he-" I started before getting cut off by Kirito.

"You, know I think It's you who should quit your bullshitting. I'm not doing this for my sake but for yours. I'm not a natural leader, and wherever you go with me, be prepared to risk every single second of your existence on trying to live to see tomorrow, because that's the kind of life that suits me. Call me crazy, I'm not expecting you to understand," he stated in an angry voice. I must have struck a nerve there.

"I see," I admitted, with obvious regret in my tone of voice. I was angry with myself for allowing him to carry this heavy burden of protecting his friends. I could hardly face him, so I turned my head and looked down.

"Trust me, I love the both of you, but I can't keep putting you through this-," he said as he was abruptly cut off by me.

"Who am I to hold you back?" I said in an attempt to ease his guilt. "Kirito you've got nothing to worry about. You have done your job, bro. There's no reason to feel guilty about what you put us through," I said with tears welling in my eyes. I could see his eyes welling, too.

"So, I guess this is it, then. Farewell, Ryuuma and Arisu," Kirito said after a short pause. He stood up from his chair and bowed in front of us, a common Japanese gesture.

"Yeah, I guess," I said, using the back of my hands to dry my eyes. As he walked out the door, I saw him rub his face with his arm, most likely to dry his eyes. He stopped before completely walking out.

"Oh, and Ryuuma. You're ten times cooler when you're not pretentious and all," he said. And with that, he kept walking, but not before I got to hurl an insult his way.

"Screw you, kid," I yelled after him in pretend anger. After he walked out on us, I felt a tiny void in my heart, kind of like when someone you love has left you and is not going to return before a long time.

"What was all that about?" Arisu asked after a few moments.

"That is a man's farewell," I replied proudly.

"Gay," she added, trying to tease me.

"Call it what you want, but no one can tease me for feeling that way. A man's farewell should never be an easy thing," I stated, trying to sound profound, while actually just coming off as pretentious. _Oh, well. It's not the first time that has happened._

* * *

After that ordeal concluded, I called a waitress NPC and ordered some breakfast. As I violently devoured the food o the table, I thought about what was to happen the rest of the day. The first thing in the schedule would be too grind til level 6, something my sister was almost in. She spent an abnormal amount of time grinding, yet didn't really seem to get stronger. Suddenly, a thought hit me. What if she doesn't know anything about skill points?

"Arisu, how many skill points do you have?" I said, fearing the worst. She quickly opened the menu and went to the skill points tab and saw the value.

"25, why? Is that good?" she asked. My mind simply shut down for a minute.

"Uhh, are you alright?" she asked. Am I alright? _Jesus H Christ, of course not._

"Have you tried applying the skills to certain stats?" I asked deadpanned.

"How do I do that?" she asked. This boggled my mind. How can someone be so close-minded?

"You press the plus sign that's next to the skill you want, you know 'strength', 'agility', 'speed', 'acrobatics'. You take the one that's most suited for your martial art, there's an exclamation mark right next to it," I stated bored, with a voice as if I've already accepted defeat.

"Oh! I never knew!" she said. She clicked at the stats and suddenly she felt energized.

"Oh my god, I feel so strong! My arm moves so fast! Check it out!" she yelled as she punched the air. She was considerably stronger now, something that would definitely help us further in our adventures. We finished our breakfast before the door to the inn was opened. It was slammed open by a really big guy. He looked to be around 6 foot 4. He wore a fur coat and had a short military shaved head, and had a tanned skin tone. Behind him came in a girl, most likely my age, that looked fairly nimble. She had long, dark-brown hair flowing in a braid. They walked straight inside the inn and sat down on a table. The guy looked fairly menacing, but the girl looked harmless as a fly. _Careful, Ryu. How many times has underestimating your opponent almost led to your defeat?_ I looked at them for a while before an NPC waitress approached them.

"Konichiwa, esteemed guests. What would you like to have?" she asked as she bowed. The NPC looked like a typical geisha.

"What do you want, Karma?", the big guy asked the girl.

"Do they serve bacon?" she asked.

"Excuse me, ma'am, but do you serve bacon?" he asked earnestly.

"Why, of course. I'll be here with a plate of bacon in a minute," she said, with a constant smile on her face.

"And make that with two plates of omelette!" he yelled after her. This guy seemed pretty non-violent from what I've heard just now. I'm surprised I even got to see another friendly player, so soon after the departing of Kirito.

"Ugh, Murchada, why are the NPCs wearing fighter's clothing?" she asked the bigger guy, apparently named Murchada.

"Because they're players?" he answered sarcastically. I immediately tensed. They found us out, although there was little required deductive skill to actually do that. I just hoped we went by unnoticed. The girl that is apparently named Karma, also tensed a bit, her hazel-brown eyes staring at the table, now.

"Uhm, Arisu. Should we go?" I whispered to her. She seemed pretty tense, too, but I bet she really didn't fear them. She did get her power up, after all.

"Uh, yeah? Let's go," she replied silently, all the while, the both of us still whispering. We transacted the money required to buy the food we just ate, stood up and walked towards the door, right before he asked:

"And where might you guys be going?". He ate the bacon and eggs like it was the last meal on earth. As he savoured the taste, he dried his mouth and faced us by turning the chair.

"Out?" I replied anxiously. I was looking at the door, then looking at them, hoping that they would notice how much I didn't want to stay there.

"But we just met," he replied. B.S excuse. I didn't want to be murdered in my sleep or something.

"I dunno, I think we should let them go," Karma added, as scared of us as we are of them.

"That's how Kayaba wins. If we give into his fear-mongering, then we'll have definitely lost!" was Murchada's standpoint in all this. He didn't play to live. He played to win.

"Ah, excuse my rudeness, the name's Murchada. Level 5, MA: Art of the Bear, Kuma no Jutsu, and this here is Karma, my sister," he said, pointing at the girl next to him. _The art of the Bear? Is that one of those unique skills I've heard about?_

"Yeah, I'm level 4, MA: ninjutsu," she introduced. _MA, what's tha- oh Martial Arts!_

"My name is Ryuuma, level 4, MA: Tae Kwon Do," I found myself saying, so as to not be rude. I nudged Arisu and told her to say the same thing.

"Hi, my name is Arisu, level 5, MA: Kickboxing," she introduced. I felt somewhat weak that her level is higher than mine but come next grinding session, I won't be giving up at all.

"Sit down with us, Ryuuma, Arisu," he said, showing us a friendly smile. We obliged, and pulled some chairs away from their respective tables.

"My pleasure," I said as I sat down on the chair that I had retrieved. They were in the middle of eating, but it seemed that Murchada was nearly done devouring his mountain of bacon and omelette on the table. Meanwhile, his sister ate with class. She had big eyes, long hair and slightly chubby cheeks, which contrasted her lean build.

"So, what brings you to Hope village?" Murchada asked, not removing his eyes off of his meal.

"I need to get stronger," I replied, with determination in my voice.

"Don't we all? If there were more people that thought of it that way, then we would already be ascended half-way up to the 100th Kingdom," he replied, greatly exaggerating the theory.

"Well, we sure wouldn't be in this pickle if people thought more about getting stronger," I added, insightfully. We kept going at it, discussing our strategies and what are the best ways to clear the game. We went at it for at least an hour, becoming merry friends at the process. Somehow, the topic transitioned from 'how to clear the game', to 'whether this game's alcohol made you as drunk as real life alcohol'. We decided to test our theories by ordering jugs of sake for each other. We were about to take a swig when suddenly the door burst open, and in came a small girl, most likely 13 or something. She wore a standard aikido outfit, with the long dress and the wide sleeves.

"Help!" she yelled and then ran to our table. She ran to us and hid behind Murchada before he could say anything about it.

"What's wrong?" Karma asked her in a motherly voice. She started shivering but answered.

"They're coming!" she yelled. I smelled trouble immediately after she said that.

"Hey, Murchada. You care to show me that bear grip you've boasted so much about this past hour?" I asked him, smiling with a wide grin.

"Sure, but only if you show me that side sweep kick of yours," he replied, smiling as widely as I did. Immediately after he said that, the door was slammed open by a player. He wore some baggy black shorts and had bandaged fists and no shirt, revealing his well-defined abs and pecs. _A boxer, how mundane._ He was followed by a bunch of other players with white belts. They looked fairly weak, as was my experience with MMOs. If the guild you're fighting all got basic gear and are aggressive, they're most likely weak and bullies.

"Where's that girl?!" the ringleader shouted. He had brown spiky hair that made him look like a morning star. He was shorter than average and had a chiseled jawline.

"'That girl' isn't going with any of you," Murchada said while standing up slowly, dramatically increasing the effect of the fright the enemies had while looking at him.

"Oh, really now? And who's gonna stop me? Some guy cosplaying as a bear?" one of the guys yelled. The ringleader was obviously disheartened by seeing his size, but fools are everywhere, even in this guy's group.

"Why, yes. And this fool is going to rip your Achilles tendons off, one by one," he replied, making half of the group scared. One even ran out.

"Coward! We never needed you!" the ringleader shouted at the deserting comrade. "Look, my name is Kibaou. I don't want to fight any of you. All I want is that girl over there. She insulted our ways, and thus she tarnished our honor," he continued. I was thoroughly disgusted by this but also amused. I even started to chuckle right in front of them. "What! What's so funny?" Kibaou asked angrily.

"Oh, it's just.. HAHAHHAHA... It's just that you try to defend your honor that was 'tarnished' by a little girl, by hunting her down. What're you gonna do, huh? Rape her? Kill her? HAHHAHAHA!" I yelled. It was just that funny that a person could actually think like this. Anyone who thinks that a girl of her age and her relevance could possibly deface him, and then proceed to hunt her. Now, that's an oxymoron if I've ever seen one myself. Angered by this, he slowly walked to where I sat, my chair turned to his direction, before I stood up too. I was one head taller than he was, so he looked up at me constantly we had our face-off.

"Why I'm gonna show her why you don't mess with the 'Spiked Dragons'!" he told me. _Torture, that's what they're gonna do. They're gonna inflict pain on her._

"I'm not gonna let you," I said, and immediately after that, he backed away before attempting a straight punch at my gut, but it was blocked with my two open palms, both held like the mouth of a beast. It wasn't that strong of a punch, and I hardly lost much HP, but he quickly retracted for a stronger punch. This time, I sidestepped it.

"It's on, cactus-head," I said. He tried swiping me with a jab, but I blocked it with my left arm and punched him on the stomach. Recovering from this quickly, he backed away to recuperate a bit. I also went back to try and recover. _Do it just like in the guide._ I placed my legs at the correct spots and held my hands in the right position. I walked towards him, scanning his movements before striking my palm on his solar plexus when he was guarding his face. The impact threw him off his legs as he flew straight out of the establishment, skidding across the cobblestoned street. He quickly rose up by kicking the floor with his legs skillfully. His HP bar was yellow, now. The attack had landed nicely, and he was unable to block it.

"That was just *cough* luck, punk," he said, trying to defend what little pride he had. He came towards me aggressively, throwing punches wildly, a few of them actually connecting, but most were either blocked or dodged. As he grew tired of the barrage of punches, he took a short breather. I took advantage of that by trying out a 'Dollyeo Chagi' or a roundhouse kick in English. I did as the manual told me, and executed the attack. I raised my knee and bent my torso so that it was 90 degrees to my supporting leg, and stretched my kicking leg high up and drove it down his neck. I kicked him straight at his neck while he was trying to shake off his drowsiness from lack of stamina. The kick hit him dead-on, sending him thudding straight down to the ground, his hp red-orange, now. He tried standing up but ultimately failed as the pain got to him too much. I took it as a victory, so I simply walked away from him, back turned from him. While I was being arrogant, he actually managed to open the menu and consume some potions and food to recuperate. He rose up quietly and tried attacking me while I turned my back, but he never took on account the amount of noise he makes while walking. He thought he would win because his HP was green, but little did he know that that's not how life works. Before going for a punch, enforced by his running speed, I sidestepped him and went for a side sweeping kick heading straight for his chest. This time, he stayed down, his HP blood-red. I was almost shocked at seeing this, with the thought that I was fully capable of killing this man. I even considered doing it, as it was the best way to get rid of scum like him. _Killing is wrong, right? Why am I questioning myself like this, of course, it's wrong! But what if he tries attacking other defenseless people again? No, I can't lose sight of myself. I won't kill him, I'll never drive myself to killing someone._

"Please... *cough* spare me... I'll leave her alone, I promise," he pleaded. This was, by far, the most disgusting thing I've seen while playing any game.

"I'm not gonna dirty my hands with your blood, cactus-head," I replied. I walked back into the tavern and saw that all the grunts were laying on the ground, aching with wounds all over their bodies. Murchada and Karma still sat on their respective chairs and the girl sat next to her while Arisu stretched her muscles while standing above the unconscious bodies of our attackers. _How are they unconscious? Some kind of status effect resultant from a battle? Man, kickboxing is amazing._

"Man, you're amazing!" Murchada shouted while in awe. He had both his hands in the air while his eyes were so wide, if this were an anime, his pupils would have stars.

"Nah, he was just some scrub. You guys took care of them?" I asked them, wondering. Both their health bars were untouched and they had no loss of stamina, so there was little evidence of a fight unless they were simply that good.

"Oh, your sister did all this, actually. She just got really pumped up all over sudden and stood up to take care of all of them. She was level 5 but now she leveled up," he answered. _She did all this? What the hell?_ I was speechless, actually.

"How...?" I asked while gesturing with my hands in an enquiring manner.

"She made them surround her so she had an advantage. When they all attacked her at once, she pulled off some crazy tricks and had all of them collide with each other. After weakening them slightly and sending them in a confusion, she dealt with them one by one in a 1v1 manner, and thus, here we are. I didn't have to lift a finger," he explained. That fighting style made some sense. She loves fighting with her brain as much as with her brawn, so this made sense. All I was left to wonder about was: _how did she knock them unconscious?_ I intended to ask her this.

"Arisu, how did you knock them all unconscious?" I asked as she was continuing her stretching session. Apparently, according to Argo, stretching after a battle actually increases EXP gain.

"Oh, that? You just - wait! You didn't check the menu?! HAHAHAHA," she yelled. _Oh my god, how could I have let this happen to me? I got help from my sister concerning a game. I am officially a failure._ I quickly opened the menu and swiped down to skill menu, the most probable direction. I went to game mechanics and ticked 'knock unconscious when HP hits 0'. I ticked it and went on with my day.

"Not another word about this, and you two. This does not go any further than through these doors," I said in an angry-embarrassed sort of way.

"Alright, _noob_ ," Arisu taunted. I gritted my teeth in psychological agony. How could I have given her even a single reason for her to use that word against me?

"Goddammit... _sigh_ " I mumbled with a defeated voice.

"By the way, are you okay, girl?" I asked the girl while bowing so we were in the same eye-level.

"I'm fine. My name is Silica, and thanks for defending me. I was just so scared, and Kibaou was saying mean things to my friends, so I tried defending her, and it was just so-" she started as she was interrupted by me.

"Shh, it's alright now. I've taken care of big, mean Kibaou. Wanna see him lying on the ground in pain? Here, I'll take you to him," I said as I offered her my hand. She was extremely reluctant on taking it as she felt very uncomfortable about me saying that.

"Uhm, no thanks, I'd rather not," she said, all shock gone from her face, now replaced with an awkward silence that signified rejection.

"What the hell is wrong with you, man?" Murchada asked incredulously. Now there was little reason to suspect that I wasn't a maniac.

"I hoped she would be happy...," was all I had to say in my defence.

"Well, that didn't happen," Karma replied matter of factly, with a concerned, disapproving look in her eyes.

"I didn't mean to," I said, both my index fingers tapping at each other, with a sad face. Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, a still-standing member of the group that attacked the girls grabbed Silica.

"You take a single step, and I'll break her neck, I swear to god!" He shouted, with a desperate, rage-induced voice. Silica didn't deem this as dangerous. Due to her small size, she slipped of his grip.

"Why, you...!" he shouted before lunging at her again. The attack proved fruitless, as the girl sidestepped, grabbed both his hands, and used his momentum against him to flip him over. _Aikido, the art of subduing your enemies..._ He stood up again, completely unharmed, and tried lunging again, but resulting in the same exact outcome. This time he threw a punch, but the fist was held tight by Silica before she lured him to move forward so that she could get him on the ground to get him in a good arm twist... _while not hurting them in the process._

"Don't move or I'll break your arm," she yelled at her enemy. Unfortunately for him, he didn't heed the warning and simply tried getting out of the grip. Silica twisted a tiny bit further, before a disgusting noise of bone breaking reverberated around the room. What came after was a wail like no other. The man shouted like nothing before. _His fault. It didn't have to end this way._ Silica simply stood up and bowed at the pile of pain and despair that lay before her. After raising her head, tears started to well inside her eyes.

"It didn't have to go this way," she whispered as she whimpered louder and louder before suddenly breaking down and started to cry. She fell on her knees and tried covering her face, but more tears ran down her cheeks than she could cover. Karma, also very sad, walked up to her and sat down to hug her from behind.

"Shh, there wasn't anything you could do. He's still alive anyway, but you shouldn't feel guilty about this," she said, trying to comfort the crying girl. She was comforted by these words and became happier. She finally smiled at Karma, then dried her tears and stood up. After the events that unfolded, the NPC waitress in the tavern came storming through the door, and in followed two townsguards from a neighboring village.

"Seize all of them!" she shouted while pointing at us. This took us all by surprise. The townsguards both had bandaged arms and wore a uniform gi. They looked professional, but all it really took to subdue them was the overwhelming strength of Murchy, our new comrade. He simply went in to attack one townsguard, but was intercepted by the other one. He retracted his arm so he could smack the guy out of his way like some kind of bear. The guard's neck snapped and after a few seconds, burst into blue polygons and sparkles while his lifeless virtual body was on the floor. The guard he was initially after tried to punch him, but the punch was met by one of his own punches. This quickly became a battle of strength where the guard was losing rapidly. Finally losing, the guard retracted his arm and before he could continue, a knife-hand was quickly lodged into the side of his neck. A loud snap was heard as the guard thudded to the floor before also dispersing into an explosion of polygons and blue sparkles. The NPC waitress, now hysterical, started shouting at us to get out of her establishment.

"Time to bounce," I alerted and with that, we left the establishment and the whole village at that. Bye bye, Hope Village. We all ran as fast as we could, Murchada being the slowest. As we run, we encountered something extremely weird. A grey, sleeping, asian dragon was on a field around 100 yards from us. It was huddled up looking like a snake spiralling its tail. It did look mighty as there was no grass growing around it. I checked its health bar and it was not even an enemy mob. It was friendly, but we were still perplexed by its look.

"What the hell is that?" was what we all said.

* * *

 **Ah, finally one with the 4th chapter. It took my a long time to finish as most of the writing was happening in my ICT lessons at school and whenever I had lunch. So, we've finally encountered Murchada and Karma, two mysterious siblings brought into the game for unknown reasons. Next chapter, the title of this fic will finally be explained.**

 **For all you grammar nuts, please correct me, but don't put insults in your reviews by calling me stupid or something. That just isn't cool. For all you story nuts, please inform me if I'm heading towards some really overused cliches.**

 **Also, for the one person I based the two siblings we just met on, please don't kill me after school if I didn't exactly catch your characters right.**

 **BTW, Murchada is pronounced Mer-Kada. It's in Gaelic.**

 **Please follow, favorite or review if you like the series and want more.**

 **Best Wishes,**

 **Sherlock D Holmes**


	5. Chapter 5 - The Lazy Dragon Clan

_"What the hell is that?" was what we all wondered._

* * *

 _11:04 AM,_

 _Grasslands, 1st Kingdom_

Before I knew it, Silica bolted after the strange creature that was apparently a Chinese dragon.

"Silica, get back!" I yelled. I couldn't bear the thought of her dying on my watch. I couldn't afford to take any chances, especially since we're dealing with a dragon. A mid-level boss most likely. She was at a distance of 20 meters away from me while running after the dragon. As she kept running, the dragon suddenly awoke from its slumber as if summoned by Silica's mere presence. I was stunned by this, but Silica kept running faster and faster until she came at a staggeringly close distance to it. The dragon raised its head before looking down at the girl that was reaching out to its head. As if obeying the command of its master, it quickly lowered its head so that Silica could pat it. Suddenly, above the head of the dragon stood a yellow question mark. _A hidden quest? Sweet._ I finally got to the dragon, but by then, our whole 'squad' was already surrounding it. I carefully approached it and tried to say something.

"O', stupendous dragon-sama. We have traveled far and wide, beseeching thy noble self. I suppose you have a quest for us to do?" I said, struggling to find the most flattering Japanese words in my vocabulary. The dragon merely looked at me quizzically, raising one eyebrow, before opening its mouth to speak.

"You what? I'm sorry I just woke up, whaddya want?" it asked me with a booming voice, but what it said did not belong to the creature's apparent personality. Everyone suddenly looked at the dragon as if it was the most ridiculously looking clown in a funeral. The feeling was of complete confusion. "Sorry, did I say something? Ey, look, I wanna sleep, so tell me what you want or beat it," it asked me impatiently. I couldn't believe my eyes, was this really how such a noble-looking creature could speak? I gathered enough wit to suppress my confusion and tried asking for the quest.

"Do you have a quest for us, might dragon?" I asked, still not giving up on the flattering diction. He looked at me, not knowing what I was talking about before it finally snapped.

"Oh! I remember now. There was this thing I really wanted. It's a crystal, located inside this cave in Mount Furugonu. It's known as a Dragonite crystal that can restore a dragon's powers. I was in this really long battle, y'know, and then the craziest thing happened! Guess what," he asked, waiting for our responses. We were completely silent, still trying to comprehend why this creature was so out of character.

"Alright, I'll tell ya. The 100th Kingdom tried to get to my lair while I was sleeping, right? And then they threw some bombs inside the cave I slept in, but I was like: 'Aw hell no!, So I just flew out of the opening of the cave before it all came crashing. I think I oughta killed 'bout 100 people that day. Good times. After they brought their own tamed dragon into the game, not so good times. We fought long and hard before one of us yielded, and it ended up being that tame excuse of a dragon. I didn't end up without a scar to show for it, oh no. That thing sent me licking my wounds, but of course, I blew his entire head off, nahm sayin'? Yeah, this happened like 'bout a week ago, and I'm still healing, thus why I'm chilling in this random grass field. I'm too weak to go anywhere, so you mind giving me a hand?" it asked. We simply sat there, listening to the entire story, but it was so hard to comprehend. He, a dragon that took down a dragon tamed by the 100th Kingdom, speaks like some random back alley thug from Detroit.

"Uhm, sure. What do we get, though?" I asked it, completely omitting the pretentious words. We had simply given up on trying to understand the nature of this creature, we just accepted it as it was and did whatever we were asked to.

"Well, I get to tag along on your journeys. Listen, dawg, I may not be the most 'conventional' dragon in Aincrad," it started, using its claws to draw imaginary quotation marks on the air. "But I can feel the amount of friendship emanating from your being together. It's sweet. Reminds me of days gone by," it revealed, finally sounding like something more than just gangster filth.

"Don't worry, man, we'll get your Dragonite crystal and heal you up nicely, don't worry about it," I said, and immediately after that, the Dragon smiled heartily and an exclamation mark appeared above his head.

"Alright, folks. According to the map, the Mountain should be right there," I said, pointing at the nearest mountain, just a few kilometers away from us. We left the dragon still sleeping on the field and ventured off to Mount Furugonu to fetch the Dragonite crystal.

* * *

After finally arriving at the foot of the mountain, we realized that there was only one very steep staircase that led to a large entrance at the side of the mountain. We walked in a single file all the way to the top before finally arriving at the cave entrance. It wasn't very wide, as 3 at most could only walk abreast. This would be a tactical disadvantage. As we ventured further and further into the cave, the entrance finally widened into an extremely large room with another tunnel opening opposite of the one we came from. As we walked across it, lights suddenly started to appear, thus allowing us to see our surroundings. We could finally get a good glimpse of everything inside the cave. There were rainbow-colored crystals all over the floor. When Silica picked one up, she appraised it, stating that it was what we were looking for: Dragonite. We picked up a nice, big haul of them before retreating from where we came from. The small tunnel that we used to get inside suddenly closed off as rocks started to fall down from the ceiling. Us having no way of leaving through that way, we continued onwards through the other tunnel that we felt we couldn't go through as it had seemed to risky to keep moving. After entering the other tunnel, we continued onwards, walking in a single file this time. Suddenly as we ran inside, a whole group of Menacing Moles was waiting on the inside. They looked extremely weird as they all had builder's helmets on and walked on two legs. We noticed them too late as we had already stepped into their aggro area, so now the only think we could do was fight them. Murchada went at the front line to tank all the damage as the moles jumped straight at him, their fists above their head like they were flying, or using their entire body to drill through the air. Murchada blocked the barrage of these attacks before Arisu stepped in to parry the punches with a punch of her own. Her being the stronger being, they fell back and attempted again. After a short while of this, Murchada seemed to be at around orange health.

"I can't keep this up much longer, do something Ryu!" he yelled. I was just about to step in before they all started running away from me. They all had a fearful expression as they scurried off as quickly as their legs allowed them to.

"Yeah, don't ever bother us again, you hear me? Yeah, boy," I said, deeply entrenched in my illusion that they had run away from me. Litte did I know that they ran away from what was behind us. A gigantic Menacing Mole was mowing through the mountain like he was swimming in water. We ran as fast as we could, knowing that we would be doomed if we tried fighting in their turf. After finally seeing an end to the tunnel, we kept running as fast as we could, with Karma at the front, and Silica following after. They suddenly stopped right in front of the opening. Before not long, I reached them and stopped where they stopped. I saw the reason as to why they stopped, though. The opening led to an extremely large underground network of Menacing Moles strip-mining the mountain walls. There was a drop right before us, though. It looked bottomless as no light escaped from it, giving it the illusion of looking like a black hole. We had little time to analyze the inside of this area. Survival was our priority. Not far from the drop, there was a small platform raised by metal chains where Menacing Moles were transporting crystals and other minerals in minecarts on a huge railway network that stretched across the entire room. As our group saw that it was our only hope for survival to jump as far as we could and to reach the platform. Arisu and Karma go first. After Murchada miraculously managed to grab the edge of the platform to pull himself up before falling, all that was left was Silica and I. We tried leaping, but before we could, the giant Menacing Mole pushed us, not allowing us to charge our jumps properly. We fell down the bottomless pit to what might have been our apparent end, had it not been for the fact that the pit wasn't bottomless, but rather there was water at the end of the drop. We smacked the water with such force, our entire bodies were aching from the impact.

"You okay?" I asked her, coughing up water. I rubbed my entire body as it hurt so much.

"Yeah, ugh, it hurts so much," she said, whimpering as she spoke. I stood up and went to her, writhing on the ground. I gave her a hand and she grabbed it before I pulled her up.

"Alright, so now we just need to know how we get out," I stated, confident in my tone, so that Silica wouldn't be disheartened. The temperature down here was freezing cold.

"Ryuuma-kun, we need to stay close to conserve warmth," she told me, and right after, hugged me. She was really warm, so it didn't matter what she did. I hugged her back and thus we lay on the ground with barely enough warmth to keep us going. I gave her some sake (not because of _that,_ you pervert) so she and I could warm up a bit.

"It's so cold, but it feels better when I'm with you, Ryuuma-kun," she said, closing her eyes while smiling at me. _Uh-oh, does she like me or is it the booze that's talking? She's like, what 12?_

"Hehe, yeah sure," I replied nervously, and thus we lay on the ground, Silica half-drunk from all the sake I made her drink. _Jesus, what kind of person am I, giving alcohol to a minor?_

"All that water made me feel fuzzy inside, you got any more of that?" she asked me, her voice slurring. _Oh lord in heaven, please forgive_ _me for my sins._

"No, you drank it all," I said, not even lying. After the first bottle, I wanted to make sure that she was actually warming up, so I gave her more and more of it for good measure, but I forgot that she would get drunk, now. Oh no, Arisu is going to skin me alive. Karma will probably beat the living shit out of me. Murchada will high-five me, but that's beyond the point.

"Oh, I'm sorry, you wanted some?" she asked me earnestly. I really didn't know how to answer that so I simply said it was okay.

"Nah, it's fine. And besides, I couldn't take alco-UHM, NOTHING," I said quickly after almost busting myself.

"You can't take alco? What's alco? The name of the brand of water you gave me? Then god bless the maker of alco for such a tasty water," she yelled to the sky, the last bit of the sentence slurring. "Where can I buy alco, huh? Tell me, man. It's sooo good," she said, smiling. _Oh god, oh god, oh god, what have I done?_

"That was the last bit of Alco in the entire game. There's no other place to buy it because you just drank the last bit," I told her, hoping this would extinguish her dream of continuing the alcoholism that I brought upon her. We kept lying on the bank of the water we crawled out of after we fell, conserving the heat, waiting for our comrades to get us out of this giant hole in the ground.

"Hey, Ryu-kun. Once we get out of this game, can you buy me some real life alco?" she asked. _Oh god, what have I done with her, she's gonna become a full-blown alcoholic soon._

"Alco doesn't exist in the real world, too," I tried explaining. "And now it doesn't exist here either, so it simply doesn't exist anymore," I told her, hoping that she would buy it, something even I wouldn't in her inebriated state.

"Oh, that makes me sad," she answered silently, tears welling in her eyes. I let out a sigh of frustration, clenching the fist that was on her back hugging her. _How the hell do I fix this? I give her alcohol, and she gets drunk. I don't give her alcohol and she'll cry. It's simple, just stop giving her alcohol, you dumb twat.  Hey, who the hell are you? I'm your common sense, and it's time you listen to me for once in your putrid, ridiculously simple life, you immoral pig._ I tried concealing my inner turmoil as I debated with myself whether giving a 12-year-old alcohol was excusable or not, finally getting to know my common sense after all these years of not knowing it.

"Hey, Ryu-kun. Once we clear the game, can we get married?" she asked me innocently, her facial expression now dead-serious. _What do I do? Reject her, moron. How can you marry a 12-year-old? But she'll get sad. Alright, I repeat, how the hell can you marry a 12-year-old? I could wait. Ah, for the love of- you know just do what you want, I'm out of here. I don't care, I never needed you anyway, Mr. Common Sense. Good luck with life, smartass._

"I'm already engaged," I said, in a ridiculous attempt to have her stop nagging at me. Now this will just raise more questions, great, and here I thought I didn't need my common sense.

"Oh, now I'm sad," she informed me. She went on to rest her head on my chest, closed her eyes and fell asleep, and that's when I saw it. Some winged creature was approaching us in an extreme velocity. I quickly stood up, looking at the thing, before it dawned on me.

* * *

 _Arisu POV_

"Ryuuma!" Murchada shouted with despair apparent in his tone of voice. After looting the remains of the Menacing Moles that were on the same platform, we looked down at the bottomless pit. Murchada was on his knees, tears welling in his eyes, arms down next to him. He raised his head and looked up at the roof of the mountain.

"NOOOOOOO!" he yelled, 'sound of silence' playing in his mind. I just realized what had happened, and suddenly a void formed inside my heart. My mouth grew dry, and my heart skipped a beat. I quickly swiped in the air to open the menu and check the party, and to my extreme joy, Ryuuma's name was still the party, with green health, no less!

"Don't worry, he's fine," I told him. Karma, shocked by Murchada's shouting, calmed down and a smile appeared.

"Oh? Well, that's great! Now we just have to clear this place and get out. Then we ask the dragon for help once we get out of this," he said happily, already planning ahead of himself.

"That is if we do get out," I said, worrying about Silica and whether she survived.

"Silica! What happened to her, Ari?! Is Silica okay?!" Karma shouted as realization dawned on her. I had only confirmed Ryuuma's survival, but Silica could be dead right now.

"Relax, Karma, if Ryuuma made it, Silica definitely did, too," Murchada stated. Well, it made sense. We shook off the fear and looked around at the platform we were in. It was square, 20 meters long and wide. There were minecarts driving from point A to B in a very organized manner, with a lever next to the track to control the flow of minecarts. An idea quickly formed in my head for our way out.

"Guys, I think I know how to get out of this place. Let's all take our own minecarts and ride out of this place," I added, receiving nothing but dumb stares from the rest.

"That is if it actually leads us to where we want to go," Karma commented cynically, doing what she did best.

"Got any other idea, miss Ninja?" I asked, slightly peeved at her cynicism. _If she had a better idea, then I'm open for suggestions._

"Yeah, not leading us to our deaths for starters, miss look-at-me-punching-shit" she spat back, eyeing me ominously.

"Yeah, no shit, genius. I was thinking maybe something of more substance, perhaps you giving an actual idea," I replied, angrily. She thoroughly angered me to the point where we had a stare-down. I could have sworn I saw electric currents between our eyes. We were separated by Murchada.

"Hold up, girls. There's no need to fight," he said, worriedly, not exactly sure about how to extinguish the situation at hand. We walked away, each turning our backs at each other.

"Alright, then. Let's do the minecart idea," Karma finally said. We each jumped in our own minecart, Murchada being at the largest one at the front. He pulled the lever next to the railway that would activate the railway, thus allowing the minecarts to drive.

"Next stop, somewhere else!" Murchada yelled as he pulled the lever. We whizzed through tunnels and tunnels, witnessing the entirety of the underground mining operation. We finally stopped at an outpost that looked just like the large entrance at the face of the mountain we entered through. This was our way out. After jumping out, we picked up all the diamonds and minerals that lay around for us to take, and thus continued forward. We went down the face of the mountain by using a surface lift, mostly used to transport the minerals and materials mined by the Menacing Moles to wherever they sold them. _Weird, I didn't know these creatures worked this hard. Now I feel bad for breaking their necks._ Now all we had to do was go give the trashy dragon the Dragonite crystals, then help our comrades stuck in deep in a gully.

* * *

After hours of orienting ourselves, we finally understood where to go. If we were to reach the Dragon, we would have to go all the way around the mountain, which was really wide. After going around it completely, we headed back to the grassy field where the dragon was sleeping. After about an hour of trekking through the tall grass, we finally got to the dragon. Aware of our arrival, it quickly rose its head and smiled at us.

"You got da good stuff?" it asked. Still perplexed by how stupid it sounded, we showed it the Dragonite crystal. His grin quickly widened.

"Come to papa," it said as it swallowed the crystals of our hands. The gray and tired dragon suddenly regained life as it turned sky-blue in color, its Fu Manchu mustache regaining its luster and volume. "Aww, hell yeah, baby I'm back!" it shouted, fire gushing out of its mouth as it raised its head towards the sky.

"There is something we want from you, Dragon," Murchada asked solemnly.

"Uh-oh, not 'Dragon'. The name is Lao Shi, and don't you ever forget," it yelled, gleefully as it took towards the skies and did a few loops before returning to the ground. "Aw, yeah, I'm sorry, what did you want?" it finally remembered.

"Can you help us rescue our friend in Mount Furugonu?" we asked it.

"As long as it doesn't involve fighting other revolutionaries or people, then I'm glad to help in any way I can," it informed us. _Oh, so it does have its limits. Well, we could use it for grinding._ We climbed aboard it as it took to the skies and headed to the mountain in record speed. We were there in a matter of minutes. The dragon whizzed inside the narrow tunnel we used to get in and blew a hole through the opening that was cut off by the rocks. We eventually managed to get inside the same place where Ryu and Silica fell. We then dashed downwards, having a hard time holding ourselves to the dragon as it went faster and faster downwards, and that was when we saw Ryuuma, but most of all, where we also saw Silica, alive and well.

* * *

 _Back to old Ryuuma's point of view_

"Took you guys long enough," was all I could say as I was carrying Silica with my arms. I saw the dragon, completely different from before, less wrinkly and filled with color and life.

"Uhm, Ryu, what happened to Silica, why is she sleeping, and why does she smell of, *GASP* JESUS WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU GUYS DOING?!" Karma yelled. She looked super angry, so I felt that being honest would be the best way to go.

"I gave her some sake so she could-" was all I could say before a straight punch from Arisu's fist hit me dead-on in my nose, but not enough to send me flying because I was carrying Silica.

"Why did you give her sake, you dumb idiot?!" Karma and Arisu yelled in unison. They both looked at me like I committed the gravest of crimes.

"So she would warm up, dammit. It was cold as ice down there, and I gave her all I had!" I yelled back, before getting two slaps from the angry girls.

"YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO GET HER DRUNK!" they both yelled. True, but I did it for good measure.

"I only gave her extra for good meas-" I said before getting slapped across the face by both the girls again. My cheeks were colored red from their hand prints, and my health bar was almost at yellow.

"Dude, you got a girl drunk? Nice," Murchada told me as he reached out for a high-five, which I returned. The girls both saw this and decided to pin their judgment on Murchada.

"DON'T YOU DARE APPROVE OF THIS," they both yelled as they, too, slapped Murchada. We both had completely red cheeks as we simply stood there, not talking.

"Hop on, dawg, we ain't got all day," the dragon told me impatiently. I still couldn't get used to the dragon's way of speech, in that it was just too ridiculous.

"Thanks, I guess. Fly, dragon?" I said in an attempt to command it.

"Nuh-uh, the name's not dragon. Do I call you human? Call me by my name, boy. Lao Shi," it told me. Lao Shi? That sounds pretty awesome, and here I thought its name would be Tyrone, or Jamal or Deshawn or something.

"Sure, alright, Lao Shi, get us out of here," I told it, hoping not to be rectified, and besides, the dragon seemed cool, but just really out of character.

"Sure thing, _masa,"_ it said as it obeyed my command and flew us out of the gully faster than you could say 'a dragon talking with ebonics flew us out of a bottomless pit that wasn't bottomless' 10 times. We continued onwards and out of the mountain and landed on a flat area on the mountaintop where we looked at the sunset.

"I figured we should stop by here, seeing as how the sunset's so damn on fleek here," it told us as we alighted. I still carried Silica on my arms but lay her down on the ground so I could get a good look over the entirety of the sunset. It was even more, beautiful than the one I saw yesterday, with Klein and Kirito. As I was gazing distantly into the horizon, a thought occurred.

"Guys, I think we should form a clan," I suggested. They all looked at me, thinking the same thing.

"Yeah, good idea. What should we call it," Karma asked. Now, this was the hard part.

"How about: 'Infinity bears of heaven's sunset'. That's awesome," Murchada suggested. That did sound awesome.

"That's an awesome name for a clan!" I yelled, both of us now high-fiving each other like primary school kids.

"That's the shittiest name for anything, really. How about: 'Kawaii-desu' clan?" Arisu suggested. I almost barfed, and I made gagging sounds just to prove my point.

"That name gave me cancer, I have 6 months left," I said, lying down writhing in pain.

"What have you done to your brother? NOOOOOOOO!" Murchada yelled, arms next to him while he was on his knees facing the sky.

"What about the 'Shadow Clan'?" Karma suggested. I stood up and gave her my opinion.

"Karma, you should be careful. You might actually cut yourself on that edge," I told her matter-of-factly. She gritted her teeth and looked at me with hate in her eyes. We were at each other's throats trying to decide the name.

"Oh, what about: 'Big boss dragon of death, Lao Shi, the bringer of Judgment Clan'?" Lao Shi asked. _That has gotta be the most retarded name_ I've _ever heard in my life._

"YOU DON'T GET A SAY IN THIS," we all shouted, making the dragon sad.

"Guys, *hiccup* how about 'Lazy Dragons', cuz this dragon was lazy when we found him and stuff, hehe," Silica slurred, while still on the floor. Apparently she overheard us. It wasn't half that bad of a suggestion, really.

"I like that, Lazy Dragons," I said, holding my chin with my thumb and the side of my index finger, rubbing my stubble.

"Yeah, let's go with that," Arisu said.

"Yeah, sure, why the hell not?" Murchada added. Now it was only up to Karma to agree, then we can all be done with this ordeal. She got a few stares before finally conceding.

"Fine, yes, let's go with that one," she said, giving in to our stares.

"But who's making the clan?" I asked everyone. They all didn't really seem interested in making the clan, so I simply took the initiative, myself.

"Alright, I'll do it. As of today, we are hereby a registered clan known as the 'Lazy Dragons'!" I shouted. "Hey, Murchy, got any booze? This is reason enough to celebrate," I asked. He checked his menu and spawned in his sake and gave everyone their own bottle.

"Kanpai!" we all yelled, then taking a swig of our sake bottles. The dragon simply lay there, dormant, staring at the horizon where the sun was setting. After finishing our bottles, we all sat down to gaze at the night sky. I went to the cliff, and sat there for a while, pondering what our next moves would be before Karma sat next to me.

"Ryuuma, I just wondered, how old are you?" she asked me. "I'm sorry if I come of as rude, but you seem so mature in some situations, but in other ones, well, you know," she clarified.

"I'm 42," I replied matter of factly, not looking at anything but the beautiful star-covered night sky.

"Hahaha, no I mean seriously," she urged on after having a good laugh.

"I'm turning 19 in a few months," I told her.

"Oh, really? I just wanted to know if you were too young to drink, but in Japan, you are," she told me.

"Oh crap, what do we tell the cops? 'Sorry, officer, for drinking virtual alcohol, haul me in'?" I said, jokingly. This apparently cracked her up again. "Enough about me, how old are you?" I asked her.

"I'm 18, too," she told me. We stared at the night sky for a few seconds before Murchada joined us, sitting right between Karma and me.

"I wonder how they got the stars so accurately depicted in this game. The constellations are identical to the real life ones," he told me. This, of course, piqued my interest. I quickly forgot about the conversation I had with Karma as we sat there talking about the different constellations. All the while, Lao Shi was watching us socialize with each other, a faint smile on his dragon lips.

"Cheers for a good time," it said, before taking a swig of the sake I had given it by lifting it with his teeth, then emptying the content inside him by raising it high.

Ending song:

Home Made Kazoku - Thank You!

* * *

Hey, fellows. Here's another chapter of MAO, yeeeaaah. For the next chapters, I'll start adding OSTs mid-chapter to improve the reading experience. If you wanna get the maximum feel of the chapter, please do search up the titles of the songs. I'll do my best to get exactly the right song, and I'll try getting the instrumental ones if the words are too disruptive. I'm planning on rewriting the entire chapter 1 since it's so abysmal and it keeps chasing visitors away. No retcons this time. I'll just rewrite the way it was written. It was weird, clunky and pretty stupid.

Hope you had a good weekend, I sure didn't. Have a good Monday.

Best Wishes,

Sherlock D Holmes


	6. Chapter 6 - The Revolution Begins

_"Cheers for a good time," it, no he said, before taking a swig of the sake I had given him by lifting it with his teeth, then emptying the content inside him by raising it high._

* * *

 _13:54 PM,_

 _First Kingdom_

"What an awesome view," Murchada yelled excitedly as Lao Shi transported us to the nearest city that wasn't the town of beginnings.

"I know, right? Man, it's awesome bein' a dragon!" Lao Shi yelled as he flapped his wings harder and gained more speed as he did so. The nearest city was just a few kilometers ahead, normally a day's trek from Mount Furugonu to there, but thanks to our dear quest reward, that issue has been solved. As it came closer to the city, I asked it to land before we reached there.

"Alright, boss," it said, landing himself smoothly on the ground, its serpentine body crawling elegantly.

"Aight, Lao, we can't have people seeing you in the city, ya know. People, especially the revolutionaries, get jealous easily," I said, being careful to replace the word 'gamer' with revolutionaries, which according to the game lore, we play the role of.

"I get it. Well, call me when you need me with this whistle. Hold up, lemme just craft it," he said. He picked up a rock from the ground and blew fire on it. Eventually, the piece he was making became more and more apparent as an elegant looking whistle.

"Now I know what y'all is thinking, what kinda sorcery is this? Magic, boy," he said, attempting jazz hands with his claws.

"So we blow this whistle when we need you?" Murchada asked.

"Sure, imma be chillin in my crib. If y'all be needin' me, blow the whistle," he replied. _Fair enough._ We then bade our farewells as the dragon quickly took to the skies and burst through the clouds, outside of our field of view. It was a short trek to the gate of the giant walled city known as 'Kishiburo'. The first thing we had to do was sell all the diamonds and minerals we found. Since this game has no weapons, and there is no need for armor as it just slows you down, loot and minerals can be sold to afford skill books or to hire private trainers. Then there is the PTPT, the player to player transactions, which mostly occurs when a player lends their special talents and services to another person. What we were after were skill books, and we needed them fast. I gave the people of this game an estimation of a month or two before we actually band together to defeat the first corrupt king, Illfang the Kobold lord. Now, there is the issue of widespread confusion and sadness that has shellshocked the other players. We might be the only players yet that have kept our cool for this long. Perhaps every member of our clan has always had a deep-buried wish to escape.

"Man, how many people in this game have a dragon of their own? I wonder what level Lao Shi is," I commented.

"Hmm, the level didn't really show. Perhaps he was a level 100 mob?" Murchada asked. I pondered further at this. If the dragon wasn't lying, it said that it fought a dragon tamed by the 100th Kingdom, the strongest kingdom in the realm of Aincrad. If so, then this dragon could most likely kill any player.

"It's not impossible. I'd say it might be around level 90-100," I added. We entered through the gates of Kishiburo and looked at the beautiful city. All the establishments were tidy and ornamented, and all the houses looked so noble, it was a wonder how we even managed to be allowed to stay here. The guards in the city all wore highly decorated red and black karate gis. We walked through the streets in search of a bookshop where we can buy more advanced skill books. After a few minutes of searching, a friendly guard gave us directions around the giant city to where we could find what we were looking for. There was a bookstore right across the street, highly decorated with many different kinds of Japanese/Chinese ornaments on the windows. We entered the store and were immediately met by a refreshing air.

"Welcome, esteemed guests!" the store manager said while a smile rested on his face.

"What have you got for sale, sir?" Murchada asked, after the routine bowing that signified respect.

"Take a look, everything is for sale, sir," he said, gesturing with his hands, pointing at the shelves rich with books and scrolls. If all these scrolls and books actually contained information, then this game was way bigger than I thought.

"Do you have any Tae Kwon Do or kickboxing books?" I asked him. He immediately wore a nervous smile on his face.

"I-um- I-I have no idea what you're asking me for, sir, hehe," he said, both eyes darting from left to right, while rubbing his hands, all the while smiling nervously. I immediately understood what happened. We were in a rebellion. This city must have some level of Kingdom influence. I tensed my muscles, wondering what was to happen to us now. If he snitches, we could be killed by the town's guards. Murchada may be as strong as a bear, but even a bear can get outnumbered. I thought of dismissing this entire episode and to simply skip town, had it not been for Arisu's hot-headedness.

"Don't play dumb. You got the books or not?" she kept asking. The man now sweated like he just took a shower, all the while smiling.

"Y-you people don't happen to be revolutionaries, now, do you?" he asked us nervously. I knew the answer, but I didn't know what to say. Karma looked just as nervous as I was like she was the only other person in this room with brains. Meanwhile, Silica was already immersed in the store's wide variety of books, browsing as we were conversing with the store manager.

"Yes. We are dedicated to curbing the 100 Kingdoms' corruption," Murchada said. _Well versed in the lore? I didn't expect that from you, Murchy._ The store manager now suddenly wore a serious face. He lowered his arms, took a deep breath, then closed his eyes.

"Prove it," he simply said, in a voice far different from his normal store manager voice that he uses to put the customers at ease. I didn't know how to prove that I was a revolutionary. Suddenly a thought came to mind. There might be something in my inventory that could prove my allegiance. After a few seconds of searching, I finally found it. _Bingo._ It was a wooden medallion of a castle in ruins. The item was titled: 'Medallion of the Revolution'. I spawned it in and showed it to him. He grabbed it and bit it a few times, most likely appraising its authenticity.

" _Sigh_ , nice seeing revolutionaries around here, after such a long silence. Where were all of you?" he asked. I was pondering his question before finally understanding it. The beta was over, so there were no players online for 3 whole months. "Thanks to your absence, the kingdoms have now reinforced the capitals, so all of the revolutionary progress has been rendered null," he said, slightly annoyed.

"We came back with numbers. Last time we were 3,000 strong. Now we have 30,000 and are now ready to liberate Aincrad," I answered, trying to be as lore-appropriate as possible, so as to avoid confusion while talking to the AI.

"Very well, I suppose I do have books for you. They don't come free, though. Especially not now that times are so tough," he told us.

"Excuse me sir, but do you allow barter?" Karma asked as she showed the man a few chunks of diamonds. He sighed before conceding.

"Now, these are worth a lot, but it's incredibly hard to sell them off, especially in the lower kingdoms where money is scarce. This city is an illusion. You only see what they want you to see. The truth is we are incredibly poor," the man said. "But I suppose I'll allow it, for a revolutionary warrior," he added. He took our diamonds and gave us two advanced Kickboxing and Tae Kwon Do books. We left the store, happy with what we found. We were about to enter an inn in the city, with the little amount of col we had scraped together before we saw it. A window popped right in front of us, a system message. The contents of the message froze me solid. It was titled: 'The Increased Immersion Update'. The introductory message sent shivers down my spine, but luckily, there was an update list. I quickly went through the message.

 **The Increased Immersion Update v1.0**

 **Greetings, players,**

 **I have taken notice of some features extant in this game that are effective in ruining immersion while playing. These features are the safety lock:'Knock unconscious when enemy HP hits 0', and the pain dampeners. Now the former has been terminated and the latter has been set to 0%.Now no pain is reduced upon damage received. I mean to make the game as immersive as possible. I hope this message hasn't disrupted your game session. Check the full update list for more information. Good luck,**

 **Akihiko Kayaba.**

* * *

 **OST:**

Epic Build Up Music - Movie Film Scene Scores Soundtracks

* * *

Immediately after reading, I felt a strange surge going through the entirety of my body. I felt powerful, yet frail, like a shard glass disguised as a diamond. I read through the update list and saw all the removed and added features, but there was a special personal quest given to everyone. I read through that segment of the message and understood what I had to do straight away. Chills went down my spine. If the death game hadn't started two days ago, it surely did today, at this hour, due to the removal of the biggest deterrent of player deaths, and the removal of the pain dampener. I simply stood there, dead in my tracks, swallowing it all up.

"So, I guess shit gets real from now on," I mumbled, although no one failed to hear me.

"I'm guessing this is it for now, until after we finish this quest," Murchada stated, all traces of humor gone from his voice.

"Til we meet again, then," Arisu mumbled while cracking her knuckles.

"And we'll be a lot stronger after that, too," Karma said while cracking her neck and stretching her hamstrings.

"I'll do my best to get stronger, just like everyone else," Silica added timidly. She knew just how important this quest was, so she knew she had to go out on her own to complete it. We all knew where to go. Each quest was moderated by the Cardinal system's AI and was specialized for each and every player. The 1st Kingdom was definitely big enough to have everyone go on their quests without any of them conflicting. The 1st Kingdom's borders were 3,000 km in its total circumference and was decked with grasslands and mountain chains. There would be little chance to actually meet someone else during our respective quests. There was the issue of where we were supposed to meet after the training, which we all decided to be in this town, exactly 2 months from now. We were all connected on a clan voice chat system, so if an issue arose, we would be able to call Lao Shi and have him help us with transport.

"2 months, in which none of the days will be comfortable, got that?" I ordered. They all nodded. "Good. I won't have any of you die, especially now that the stakes are so high," I mumbled more silently. We all headed out to the outside gate of the city of Kishiburo. We discussed where we were going according to the map, and who should be riding the dragon to wherever they were going. Apparently, I had the honor. I blew the whistle and a shrill, sharp noise was heard. After a few moments, the dragon burst through the clouds, slithering through the air in all his serpentine glory. He landed on the ground lightly, much to the contrast of the speed he used to descend. He looked at me quizzically, waiting for me to say something.

"Lao Shi, take me to mount Hasegawa," I told him. And with that, he flapped his wings quickly, flying ourselves to an extreme point of the map where I would complete my training quest, and grow stronger than ever before. I may even be able to match my strength with Kirito.

* * *

Full update list for **The Increased Immersion Update v1.0**

Removed: Safety Lock (Knock unconscious when HP hits 0)  
Removed: Pain dampener  
Added: Ki bar  
Added: Ki oriented attacks  
Added: Ki manipulations  
Added: Spiritual aspect  
Added: Training Gear - Ankle weights, wrist weights, Training Dojos, Martial Arts training NPCs, Special Bloodseal  
Added: Exclusive special skill for each martial art  
Fixed: Minor party bugs

* * *

 **Another chapter. Pretty short for my standards. If you want longer chapters, please leave a review c:**

 **Follow, favorite or review if you liked the chapter, and please don't forget to have a good day. BTW there's gonna be a time skip if you didn't already know. They're gonna go to their respective quest location to train some, since they're kinda weak. Don't worry, they'll be back, but sexier, funnier and stronger than ever before.**

 **Best Wishes,**

 **Sherlock D Holmes**


	7. Chapter 7 - The Very Best

_"Lao Shi, take me to mount Hasegawa," I told him. And with that, he flapped his wings quickly, flying ourselves to an extreme point of the map where I would complete my training quest, and grow stronger than ever before. I may even be able to match my strength with Kirito._

* * *

 _16:12 PM_

 _Mount Hasegawa, 1st day of training_

After a few hours of flying on the back of Lao Shi, we finally arrived. Mount Hasegawa was the widest mountain on the Akamaru mountain chain. There's was a particular thing about mount Hasegawa that made it stand out from the other mountains, according to Lao Shi. This mountain was a ki hotspot, one of many others that dot the landscapes of Aincrad's hundred kingdoms. The objective for the quest that we all received from that infernal update was the following: Go to X to get in touch with your inner Ki. In doing so, you will have activated a Ki bar right under the stamina bar. To do this, you will have to enter inside your soul and defeat your inner demon. It was an optional mission that didn't have to be done. I wondered exactly what that meant. I consulted Lao Shi about it, and he told me that I'll have to meditate to reach the center of my soul. With the information received, and my arrival in this barren area, my inventory filled with rabbit meat picked up from the grasslands, I was ready.

* * *

"Damn, meditating is harder than I thought," I said to myself out loud. No one was around, so it didn't matter what I said. I did like Lao Shi told me, and sat down, trying to control my breath. I did exactly that, but my mind always derailed from the objective in hand. I had no choice but to blow the whistle. After I blew it, the dragon dove through the clouds and landed elegantly.

"It's not working, Lao," I told him.

"I've got an idea. Show me all the food you've collected so far," he said, an evil grin stretching across his face. I had no choice but to oblige.

"Sure, I've got 200 rabbit legs right he- OH MY GOD WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" I yelled hysterically as the dragon burnt all the food I placed before him.

"Hunger will make you concentrate. Trust me, my master did the same with me," he told me solemnly. I dropped to my knees and started crying.

"What will I eat now?" I asked sobbing. He looked at me like I was the dumbest monkey in a science convention.

"Nothing, that's the point, dumbass," he answered. "Now, stop calling me. A brother's gotta get some sleep once in a while," he said, and with that, took off to the skies.

"Damn you, damn you, DAMN YOU!" I yelled towards the sky. Well, I guess it can't be helped. I sat down in a lotus position and started meditating. These are gonna be two long months.

* * *

 _12:00 pm_

 _Mount Hasegawa, 4th day of training_

It's the 4th day of not eating anything, sitting in the exact same position for approximately 96 hours, minus all the hours spent stretching after each 12-hour sessions. The hunger was definitely getting to me. There was nothing else on my mind than my empty tummy, completely dissociated with my real life body, which most likely has been brought to the hospital and is on vitamins and nutrients, due to my seemingly comatose state. My stomach stopped growling about 48 hours ago, now replaced with a burning sensation stemming from the lack of food.

"Ommmmmmm," I said for the 50,000th time, trying to meditate. It was to no avail. I was going nowhere at this rate.

* * *

 _17:30 pm_

 _Mount Hasegawa, 7th day of training_

This would be the day. At least, that's what I kept repeating. I kept sitting in a lotus position, closing my eyes, controlling my breath. It was then it clicked. My hunger stopped. I felt no hunger. After this, I could feel my body dematerialize as everything turned black. I suddenly materialized into a black room. It was so dark I could hardly see past my stretched-out arm. After a second, the room suddenly turned bright. I was in my room, back in Kenya. The country I was forced to move into after living a great life in the states. The room, messy as always, had someone inside. That someone was me. He was sitting in my computer chair, immersed in whatever game he was playing. As I approached him, the game paused and he rotated my computer chair to face my direction. I sat there, grinning like a maniac.

"Who are you?" I asked him. He looked at me, inquiringly, as if I should have known. The truth is, I did know.

"Well, I'm you. Or at least, everything you would never want to become," he told me.

"Are you my inner demon?" I asked him. He smiled at me like the answer was obvious.

"It depends. Would you ever allow me to be?" he asked me, philosophically. I pondered the question for a few moments, before finally formulating an answer.

"You are what you are, inner demon," I told him, confused. _What the hell is this, I never remember telling the game about my room._

"Oh, please. Call me Tony, or rather, call me Anthony," he said, using my real name. I staggered by the use of my real name.

"What the hell is this? How does this game know my real name? How does it know how my room back home looks like? HOW DOES IT KNOW ANY OF THIS?!" I shouted, now completely lost. _This can't be... unless..._

"You're not playing Martial Arts Online right now. You're interfacing with your mind. The Nerve-Gear has connected us in a way that you can directly communicate with aspects of our personality, but of course, you already knew that. I am you, after all. The only limit to what I know is what _you_ know," he said. He was right. I knew all of that after analysing the situation a bit.

"So that means..." I began.

"... I'm an aspect of your personality, or rather, a manifestation of everything you loathe about yourself. Everything you would never allow yourself to become. I am the chaff to your wheat," he concluded.

"I see. In that case, there's nothing you can say that will make the both of us assimilate," I told him or it, _honestly, I don't even know anymore._ I knew what it wanted, after all, we are the same. He wants me to accept him as my primary personality, the will that will drive me from now on. Call it what you want, all I know is I'm not allowing it.

"How can you say that when you can't even get over your fear?" he asked me, spinning around on the chair as he did so saying it in a singsong voice.

"What fear?" I asked in honest confusion, before thinking for a second. I thought of the answer exactly the same time he uttered it.

"Me," he said, his smile widening with every second that passed. I looked at him, wondering what he was on to.

"You don't have to fear me, you know. Just do as I tell you. You wouldn't want Alice and the others to get hurt, now would you?" he asked me. I was shocked by the names.

"How do you know them?" I asked him, my hands shaking all the while. I immediately realised how stupid I was by getting surprised by that. He was me, anyway. There was nothing he knew that I didn't.

"Why wouldn't I? I'm you, dumbass," he clarified. I simply nodded as he continued. "You need me, you know. You need someone merciless to protect your friends and family because you know damn well that you are not a good leader. You wouldn't be able to handle more blood in your hands, now. Especially not after that episode, remember?" he said. Suddenly, we flashed back in front of the dreaded car accident. My sister lay across the street, a bloody trail following her scratched up body. A bit further from there lay _the girl_. The girl I'd wish to have forgotten for all these years, yet still haunt my dreams to this very day. I was in the car-wreck, uninjured. I was the uninjured one, not the girl, not my sister. My evil aspect and I were both onlookers in this horrible tragedy.

"You wouldn't want this to happen again, would you? After all, history does tend to repeat itself," he said, not even bothering to hide his ominous tone of voice. I pondered this long and hard, but suddenly I remembered my main objective.

"No," I whispered ever-so-silently. This raised my evil aspect's eyebrow slightly.

"Can't hear you, boy," he said, both of his hands in his pockets.

"No! I don't need you in my life at all!" I yelled with all my might. This got me a confused look from the aspect.

"Whaddya mean 'no'? Want your friends to die or sumthing? YOU NEED ME," he shouted, suddenly growing in size, his eyes completely shifting with red pupils and pitch black scleras. The setting we were in changed drastically as all lights were shut and now the only object in the vicinity was him in his monstrous proportions.

"I don't need you, nor do I want you. Anger leads to hate leads to suffering," I told it, completely ripping of Yoda. The fellow had a point.

"Don't kid yourself, boy! I can make you stronger than your wildest dreams!" he shouted, his voice deepening into a satanic frequency.

"You are made of everything I don't want to become. Assimilating with you is pointless. I don't need you at all. Begone, filth," I told it. He kept getting angrier and angrier, no longer focusing on appearing appealing.

"You fool! You haven't seen the last of me. I will never leave you alone" he shouted, and with that, he melted into a puddle of black viscous liquid. I walked over it to look at it.

"I'm here if you need me, Anthony. You may be able to suppress me, but you'll never get rid of me. Such is the way our souls work," it told me. Sensing that I was victorious, I tried waking up in Aincrad again. I sat down to meditate once again, trying to revert to my old body. After a few minutes, I opened my eyes, and noticed I was sitting on hard rock. I saw old mount Hasegawa and knew I was back. What I didn't expect to see was a haze of green emanating from the surface of the rocks. I checked the menu and saw that I had a ki bar: 250/250. I went to my skill list and saw it. 'Ki mastery 1/1000'. I was finally done. More importantly, I could finally eat. I summoned my whistle and called quickly for Lao Shi. He dove through the clouds like normally and landed in front of me. He looked at me analysingly before smiling in a warm way, very unlike his usually bombastic personality.

"Well done," he said as if he knew of my accomplishments without even having to hear it.

"Aw hell yeah!" I yelled, raising my fist high up in the air.

"No, swing bro," he said. I didn't understand his request at first.

"You deaf or sumthing? I said swing, bro!" he repeated. I understood it this time. He wanted me to punch him. I withdrew my hand and went for a linear palm slam. He raised his talons and absorbed all the impact with his palm.

"You stupid or sumthing? Use your ki, dumbass," he told me. I had ki, yes, but the true mystery now was how to use it.

"How do I do that?" I asked, confused. He sighed before he continued.

"Can you feel the ki surging through your body?" he asked me, deadpanned. I did feel something surge through my body the moment I returned to Aincrad. Perhaps this was the ki. In order to inspect further, I went down to take a lotus position so I could meditate. After doing so, I felt it this time. The feeling was weird. It was like an invincibility potion streamed through my blood, no, ki veins. I remember reading it somewhere, that people who believe in ki also believe that it runs through a certain vein in your body that connects all the four limbs to the heart. I could feel the vein. I could feel it running through me. The intangible, yet tangible entity that was ki. I tried manipulating it a little as currently all my ki was distributed equally through the body. I raised my right hand while still meditating. _Hm, I wonder... my arm?_ I attempted to push the ki to my right arm by concentrating the area. I could feel all my ki reserve push towards my arm, and when I opened my eyes, it was covered by a golden haze emanating from it.

"Damn, bro! You're a natural," Lao Shi said as he observed my apparent talent. "Now punch me, dammit," he said impatiently. I promptly stood up and walked towards him. I closed my eyes and concentrated on my palm this time. I prepared for an open-hand palm slam and executed. Lao Shi absorbed the attack with his palm, and smiled this time.

"Man, that almost tickled. Congrats, bro, you did it, and it took just 7 days. The technique's a bit sloppy," he said smiling. I smiled too. Then, his face turned serious before giving me another training regime. He slammed the mountain floor with his claws, somehow raising a large pillar of stone a bit further from the impact zone. "Break that pillar and I'll get you some food, aight?" he asked.

"Fair enough," I said, looking at the size of that pillar. The dragon smiled, and with that, took off to wherever the hell he always went to that was above the clouds. _His crib?_ I looked at the rock, no boulder, once again and tried comprehending its size. It was wider than a car and went up higher than a monolith. This was to be my task, then. To destroy this pillar with my bare hands.

 **OST: Rocky Theme Tune**

"Get busy swimming or get busy dying," I said out loud to myself, shamelessly quoting Shawshank redemption. I filled my hand with ki before punching the rock. This left an imprint of my fist on it. My fist started hurting too. _Damn, the pain dampener did disappear. What a bummer._ I braced myself for a second punch, this time using only my palm. I charged up my entire hand, my first mistake, and attempted an attack. The handprint was apparent, but the pain in my wrist was unbearable. I cursed like a sailor before getting to my senses. I reflected on what I might have done wrong when it suddenly clicked. When I apply ki to specific body parts, they get hardened and are stronger. I didn't regard the wrist, even though it's a big part of the execution of the attacks. This time, I pumped ki into my wrist and to my palm only, to preserve ki and concentrate more of it in the affected areas. I went for another attack, this time causing a crack in the rock. The crack formed more cracks around it before a large area where I attacked it crumbled over. I looked at my ki bar, and it still read 250/250, most likely due to the area I was in. My active status effect was 200% ki regeneration, courtesy of the ki hotspot existing inside this mountain. I punched once again, shouting this time. It was a hyap or a war-cry. I slammed again, slowly digging through the pillar one attack after another.

"I CAN DO THIS, I-I CAN DO THIS!" I shouted as I kept slamming my palm at the stone, slowly digging through the layers of rock. I slammed again, this time charging the attack with all the stamina and ki that I had. I got through a good chunk of rock after that attack as it slowly started to crumble.

"I CAN DO THIS, FOR MY FRIENDS," I yelled as I slammed my palm again. The pillar finally started to break. A horizontal crack stretched out through the pillar. _One more hit but gotta make this one count._ I got the skill book from the inventory and tried searching for a certain technique that caught my eye once. _Bingo._ The spinning jump hook kick. I did a few practice runs before doing it to the stone pillar. I spun to the left and used my left leg to execute a high kick. I did the same, this time jumping. I felt the system assist guide my leg correctly both times. I felt I was ready this time. I prepared by charging up my left leg with ki, this time using all my reserves, depleting my ki completely. I kept a constant stream of ki flowing in my leg, before jumping while spinning to the left, then kicking the stone pillar dead-on at the front. Time seemed to stop for a moment before the pillar was completely obliterated. I stood up, looked towards the sky, and shouted with all my breath.

"I DID IT!", I yelled. I immediately saw my stamina bar and realised just how fatigued I was. I then fell down on the ground, as if I had just carried a mountain. I uttered the last words that I could utter before falling unconsciously.

"I did it," I whispered, lying on the ground.

* * *

 **Finally, I made a new chapter. Sorry if it took too long. I promise I'll release them faster. Please, follow, favorite and review if you liked the series and review it for more. The grammar in this chapter was a bit sloppy. I'll make sure to fix it when I get home.**

 **Best Wishes,**

 **Sherlock D Holmes**


	8. Chapter 8 - 7 Days Without Food

_"I did it," I whispered, lying on the ground._

* * *

 _10:23 AM_

 _Mount Hasegawa, 1st Kingdom_

It was long after the break of dawn when a heavenly smell woke me up. It was the smell of something I haven't had in days. It was the smell of food. I opened my eyes slowly as I raised my head when I saw it. Lao Shi, God bless him, had prepared so many animal carcasses and had scraped out the steaks and other meaty parts of the carcasses with his claws, then grilled the pieces of meat with his fire breath. Let me repeat that, the dragon made a barbecue just for me. He brought barrels of water and sake for my pleasure. I stood up quickly, then allowed saliva to flood off of my mouth, before looking at the dragon like he was my mother. I pointed to my chest before asking him the question.

"F-food... f-for... m-me?" I asked while barely being able to stand. The dragon nodded.

"Yeah, brah, you deserved it," he said, allowing a motherly smile to show off of his lips. I suddenly collapsed as I felt all the hunger accumulated suddenly churn inside my stomach like a power drill. I could hardly even moan since it would increase the pain. I simply lay there for a few moments, trying to grow accustomed to the agony.

"That is if you actually reach it," he said, trying to suppress a laugh as I crawled slowly towards the piles of meaty steaks. I dragged myself over the ground, drag after drag, scraping up my dobok (Tae Kwon Do clothes) to shreds in the process, revealing scarred tissue covered with dirt. After a few drags, I got to the first steak, a tender venison steak with the meaty juice oozing out of it from a simple touch. I rolled over on my back, raising the steak high, then drove it down to my face as I ate in ginormous bites. The venison steak was not even cut, so it was bigger than usual. The venison steak was finished after 10 seconds flat, and the taste was heavenly. It was like my mother turned into an angel and made food for me, and kissed me on my cheek before telling me to eat up. Like a ravenous beast, I quickly reached after another piece of meat. This time energised by the venison steak, I headed further into the epicenter of all the food before picking most of them up and taking bites of all of it. It was hardly even real. The game had to be broken in this sense. I kept eating, and as I ate, I was satiated more and more and more. The game hardly even included your stomach capacity. It only took on account how little you've eaten and how much you'll have to eat to compensate, and thus, I ate. And I ate til a message prompted me to stop eating or suffer 'gluttony', a status effect that slows me done for an hour. I quickly raised both mymiddle fingers and crossed them pointing the direction the insult was intended towards the message. I mouthed a hearty 'F*** you' before using both my middle fingers to press OK. I kept eating, and I didn't stop until there was nearly no food left. My hunger was finally satiated at that point. Now, for the thirst, that was somewhat curbed from the occasional rain and all the juicy meat. I decided to wolf down the water, this time now stopping until the barrel was half full. My strength stat allowed me to lift up the barrel with relative ease as I downed the remainder of the water down after the short respite. After satiating my thirst, I was finally good to go.

"What. The. Actual. F***?" was all Lao could say as he was completely perplexed by my bestial eating habit. He looked at me like a man looks at a pig that just ate its own shit, like 'that's disgusting,'. He quickly regained his composure and told me something so painful, I almost felt like crying there and then.

"Well, that was a week's ration, bro. Enjoy," he said.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, HEY! HELL NO I AIN'T GONNA GO ANOTHER WEEK WITHOUT EATING, DUMBASS!" I screamed at his face. The dragon tried suppressing a laughter before showing me something else. Lao Shi brought a large bag that contained a few stuff that he somehow found. _How the hell does a dragon go shopping?_ He showed me the content which pleased me very much. He brought a new Dobok for me, this one black and golden, and brought a few training gears.

"Boy, you think this is hard you ain't seen nothin yet," he told me, foreshadowing an ominous future for me. I gulped. I equipped the new dobok and took it for a little spin. The dragon pushed out the remainders of what were in the bag, looked at me like I was a prey, and said:

"I hope you survive what's to come". I shuddered at the sight of these torturous instruments that could be the end of me.

* * *

 **Holy shit, Ryuuma's gonna die. If you feel like sneak peeking on what's going to happen to him, go back to the update list and check under 'Training gear'. Yeah, he's gonna be badass after his hellish training period finishes. As for what our fellow heroes, Silica, Karma, Murchada and Arisu are doing, some of their stories are gonna be painful, but not as painful as Ryuuma. I originally set him out to be on par with Murchada, with Karma and Arisu acting like the fodder dispatchers, and with Silica being the adorable little girl she is. Well, I've got school and whatnot, so there won't be an update before long. Sorry. Time skip alert, though. There's gonna be a mega chapter after this one so don't worry about the short chapter. As always, F &F and don't forget to review. :3**

 **Best Wishes,**

 **Sherlock D Holmes**


	9. Chapter 9 - The Strategy Meeting

_"I hope you survive what's to come". I shuddered at the sight of these torturous instruments that could be the end of me._

* * *

 _12:32 PM, 2 months after the **Increased Immersion Update v1.0**_

 _Kishiburo, 1st Kingdom_

The busy streets were sprawling with both players and NPCs alike, completely contrasting the way it looked like the first time I came here in that there were no players that dared to venture out to Kishiburo at the time. Now the streets were packed with many different players browsing different market stalls. It was exactly two months since the update, two months since the pact I've made with my friends to reunite in this very town. After the hellish experience that I had with my dragon tutor, I felt I was more ready than ever to beat the 1st kingdom boss, Illfang the Kobold lord. I arrived in Kishiburo at noon when it suddenly hit me. We never specified the time of the day in which we would reunite. It was very possible that we wouldn't be seeing each other until long, although that later turned out to be a lie.

As I walked across the streets, an idea hit me. We could be meeting in that dojo which we originally set out to go to had it not been for that update. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, which is significantly faster than when I began the game. As I rounded the corner I saw the dojo, and also my friends. I ran to them as quickly as I could. They were all talking with each other and were close together. They hardly saw me coming, so I hugged all of them at the same time.

"Guys, I finally found you, I thought it would take all day," I said as I pressed harder. They all wore an awkward expression, trying to leave my grip, only to be squeezed harder by my newfound strength.

"Uhm, yeah, could you stop hugging us now?" Karma asked awkwardly. I loosened my grip and let them all free before taking a good look at them. Murchada changed drastically. Before he used to be a combination of fat and muscles resembling the stature of a bear, but now he looked even more like one. He looked taller than normal and was more muscular than before. His military shaved hair grew to look more like a lion's mane, and he wore a scar over his left eye.

"You look pretty badass, Murchy. What'd ya do, french kiss a bear?" I asked teasingly. That earned me a laugh from the others. Karma looks kind of the same, the only difference being her color scheme. Before, she used to wear a completely black ninja overall, but now she had dark purple stripes going over it in a stylish manner. Her looks remained as pretty as they were before. Arisu's change was very apparent in that she was more muscular than before. Her biceps were more well-defined and if she wore no shirt or anything, her abs would be very apparent. Silica had little to no change. Same pony-tailed hair held up by weird looking hollow marbles and the exact same clothing, the only difference being an increase in skill. I must have changed as much or even more than Murchy. My initial appearance was pathetic at best. I had shaggy brown hair that I never bothered maintaining. I had a white Tae Kwon Do dobok that was really comfortable due to its bagginess. I had little to no muscular strength and looked really mediocre. Now my hair was still a bit shaggy but longer. The stubbles on my chin grew to a nice goatee that looked pretty awesome if I do say so myself. My muscles were much more defined now after the torture I endured for so long. Thanks to my homie, Lao Shi, I have six-pack abs. I also have recurring nightmares about my training in that wretched mountain, but that's beyond the point. _(Twitch)_

"Yeah, it's awesome that scars save on my character. What the hell did you do, lift?" he incorrectly guessed. Oh no, I don't just lift. I did more than just lift. I did things inspired from nightmares of surgeons. "Yeah, and it turns out, bears don't like being french kissed, who would've thought?" he added. This cracked me up. Good old Murchy. As playful as a bear, but also as violent as one too.

"Wow, Ryuuma, You've changed. You look... manlier," Karma said while analyzing me from top to bottom. _Manlier? Well, gee thanks._

"Hehe, thanks?" I said while rubbing the back of my hair in an unsure manner. We continued talking after that, talking about our experiences in each of our areas of training, when Silica added something very important.

"Guys, I heard there's gonna be a meeting in the middle of the city, the town hall," she said out of the blue. _So this is when we finally band together to defeat the damn boss? Huh, I guess my prediction came true after all. All the while, the IRL fighting clans are most likely training for the upcoming shitstorm, not bothering to give a damn about the rest of us._

"Then what the hell are we waiting for, let's get going!" I yelled. I was so hyped after meeting my friends. We walked all the way to the town hall in the center of the town, where a man with blue hair stood. He also wore a Tae Kwon Do dobok, but it was just that this one was white with blue seams. He had a blue belt around his waist, which reminded me very much of my own belt, still as white as snow. This might have been due to the fact that I did no leveling up while training. All I did was manually increase my physical strength, speed, and endurance. My belt did betray my actual prowess, which I wanted to keep hidden until I would find a suitable opponent. _Hehehe, I'm so badass._ As we congregated in the town hall that reminded me very much of the plaza in the town of the beginnings, the only difference was that there was a raised platform where the speaker would be conveying his message from. The blue haired man silenced the crowd before he began to speak.

"Good day everyone. My name is Diabel and I job rolled as warrior commander," he started, earning a laugh from the crowd. One jerk even yelled something along the lines of: "There is no job system in this game!". A tick grew on my forehead from this childish crowd. Diabel picked from where he left and continued, now with a more serious air around him, his jovial grin turned upside down as he donned a more serious pair of eyes.

"The scouts have returned from their trek. From a party of 5, only 3 returned, stating that they had found the kingdom's capital, and with it, the corrupt king, Illfang the Kobold Lord. It's a 7 days trek from here, and the mobs grow stronger depending on the distance away from the Town of the Beginnings. We want at least 100 players to join us to overthrow the king, and advance to the next Kingdom," he continued. _A scouting party? These people must have planned this for a long time._ "We want parties of six players to take care of the fodder. The fodder dispatchers will be everyone under level 15, and the boss killers have to be above level 15," he said. _Wait, what? I thought you were supposed to beat the boss in a fair 1v1 fight?_ "The developer has allowed multiple people to fight bosses. It was added later as a minor addition in the update list, but no one was notified about it, so the only way to know about it was to check the message again. We can consider this our advantage in our upcoming battle," he concluded, allowing everyone to absorb the information dispensed. After a short while of mumbling and talking, Diabel finally broke the hubbub.

"If you don't want to risk your life, leave right now. None of you will be held against for doing so," he said, with a gentle smile. After he said this, a significant amount of players left the town hall, wanting to spare their lives rather than fighting for everyone else's liberation. Out of a crowd of most likely 500 people, only 100 remained. After they left, Diabel continued.

"Good, now let's start making parties of 6 if you're lower than level 15, anyone higher comes with me," he said, and with that, the parties were being made. Since there were 5 of us, we only needed one more member to fill in the gap. As I looked around for someone lonely and strong, I laid my eyes on someone that was just that. Kirito. I approached him just as I looked at his level: 16. Shoot, well, I guess he'll always be above me. I returned to my squad only to find a new addition to the fold. A dark-haired pretty boy with a very apparent muscular structure. He looked like any average boyband member but looked to be stoic, judging by his facial expression and his lack of attention for Murchada's talking. He also wore a black Karate gi, thus making 4 people in our guild primarily black. He had a chiseled jawline and his eyes looked like his default expression is badass-with-a-troubled-past. His hair was short, but spiky, giving him the appearance of the token badass of a gang of anime protagonists.

"Ryu, meet Shin. He's a level 10 Karate practitioner. He'll be forming a party with us in this upcoming boss raid. If we play our cards right we might get to include him into our Clan," he said, his voice filled with high hopes. I approached him to take a closer look. The three other girls in our clan were drooling over his over-the-top attractiveness that would even make the straightest man show a level of attraction for him. I raised my hand, signaling for a greeting. I successfully drew his attention as he grabbed it and we shook.

"The name's Ryuuma. Pleasure having you here," I said, attempting to hide every ounce of distrust I had for him. _He's just too perfect, this is bound to have some drawbacks, right?!_

"The pleasure's mine," he replied. _Eloquent, 10 points to Gryffindor._ I withdrew my hand and analysed him again. He actually reminded me of the Naruto character Uchiha Sasuke. After meeting him, Diabel continued, now with some other players including Kirito next to him.

"Now, let's talk about the tacti-" Diabel began before getting cut off by someone in the crowd.

"Guys!" the man yelled, loud enough for everyone in the plaza to hear. The man ran quickly to the platform and used his speed to boost his jump. He landed neatly on the platform and continued.

"What's wrong?" Diabel asked the man. He wore black baggy shorts and had a bare upper body with bandaged arms, and also the trademark spiky hair. _Kibaou_.

"The beta testers are what's wrong! Listen up, my name is Kibaou. I don't know about you guys, but the beta testers have some explaining to do, now," he began. He caught everyone's attention. _What the hell is he talking about?_

"What do you mean by that?" Diabel asked earnestly.

"Ever since this game became a death game, the beta testers just vanished! They left the town of beginnings fully knowing where to go to get the most EXP! They're the reason 2,000 players are dead. They caused this by holding out on us! They-" Kibaou shouted as he got interrupted by another man. He looked to be a very muscular tall black man wearing a light leather armor with patches of hard materials on his weak spots. The suit had a camo pattern which made me think about the American military specialized martial art: Special Combat Aggressive Reactionary System or S.C.A.R.S for short. Whoever came up with that name must be entirely composed of metal.

"Not so fast," he shouted as he plowed through the crowd to reach the platform. He climbed it up the scaffolding of the platform easily, not bothering with the staircase. He was on the platform within seconds. "Do you know what these are?" the man began while waving a small booklet. Kibaou looked confused before the man clarified.

"This is the info book. It contains all of the information that the best beta tester info brokers had. They were distributed by the beta testers and are sold for free in any bookstore. Everyone had equal access to this information, yet people still died. Don't blame the beta testers for this," the man said, intimidating Kibaou with his tremendous body. I had enough of his shit already so I had to say something.

"Hey, instead of blaming the beta testers for pwning you, how about you git gud?" I yelled while cupping my hands around my mouth making sure he heard me. Flustered as he was, he descended the platform. I wasn't done with him, though.

"This noob wants to blame others for his own shitty gameplay. Scrub, scrub, scrub!" I started chanting, and a few others joined me before everyone started shaming the man for his ridiculous fear-mongering. His face was redder than a tomato now.

"Now, let's talk about the strategy," Diabel began, now with no one to interrupt him.

* * *

Diabel had given us all the plan for what to do when we arrive at the capital. There would be the first line of defense that we would need to dispatch. After doing so, we would have to infiltrate the city by going through the main gate and run straight to the castle where the king resides. Absolutely no killing of civilians will be tolerated by Diabel as that will make it harder for the residents of the castle or capital to side with the revolutionaries. In the meantime, our party went grinding in the tall grass. There we fought under-powered Fighting Rabbits and Pugilist Hares. They yielded too little EXP so we went elsewhere to get to stronger mobs. It was an hour walk before we reached an open expanse with relatively short grass. There we saw giants roaming the area. They wore nothing but loincloths and had oversized hands and were around two and a half times the size of an average human.

"What the hell are these?" I mumbled as I came close to one in a 50-meter distance. This, however, was apparently the aggro radius of the mob. He spotted me, and then ran after me as quickly as his large legs could carry him. I felt the tremor growing stronger as he approached me, but I never ran. As it came right in front of me, it stopped dead in its tracks and folded both his fists together before hammering the ground with them, aiming for me. Before the fists reached the ground, I already jumped, floating above his head as time slowed down. I had his entire neck at my mercy now. I landed deftly on his shoulder standing there as he stood up from the attack. Not after long it noticed my presence and tried smacking his left shoulder. I jumped off it and was directly above the creature's head. I stretched my leg forwards and started spinning like a wheel. I spun like a rotor as the ball of my heel connected with the skull of the giant and got lodged in it. After a second the mob burst into blue polygons as it died. Arisu and Karma both stood in the same place agape and wide-eyed. Silica was smiling like she was lost in love and Murchada looked at me analyzing. Shin stared at me taciturnly, analyzing me as well.

"You didn't spin fast enough, though. You could have plowed straight through his head if you were faster," Murchada commented. Shin remained silent. The only ones left to talk were the girls.

"How di- how'd yo-YOU GOT BEATEN UP BY BUNNIES FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!" Arisu yelled in complete confusion.

"Wow, that was amazing!" Karma shouted from a distance smiling widely.

"Wow, you're so strong, Ryu-kun!" Silica yelled ecstatically. I stood there like a hero receiving praises like ' _I'll be here all week, good citizens'._ I walked back to the area where they were situated as they received me with each of their reactions when Shin suddenly added his own comment

"Hmph, sloppy," he said, directing the criticism at me. _I'm sorry, what?_ "Your technique was sloppy. You weren't fast enough and you were just about to trip, I saw it," he continued.

"Like you could do better, Mr. Dark-And-Mysterious," I replied, a tad bit angry.

"Yeah, that a challenge?" he replied as he approached me.

"You bet your ass it is," I answered as I approached him. We were both at each other's throats now. It was weird. In real life, I was never the one to continue aggravating the aggressor. I've never been the type to fight, but now that I've tasted some power, I felt that there was nothing stopping me from doing anything. Murchada broke us up before anything got nasty.

"Hey, hey, hey, relax. Both of you. If you wanna settle this, do it with a duel," he said, not really making an effort in preserving peace.

"I won't bother. This guy's probably a weakling anyway," Shin said as he walked away towards the giants. _Oh, yeah? That giant would totally beg to differ._

"Pussy," I told him. This halted him momentarily before giving a reply.

"You are what you eat," he said before continuing to walk, a clever smirk on his lips. The entire party now shouted "OOOOOOOOOOHHH!".

"Then perhaps you should stop eating weaklings?" I told him in the shittiest attempt at being witty. This halted him again as he now approached me with a dark expression.

"You really think I'm weak? Alright, I'll duel ya, but I won't go easy on ya," he said, revealing a dark bloodthirsty grin. _Okaaay, so he actually found the diss hurtful._ He sent a duel request and we decided the terms. It would be a 30% HP health where the first to reach 30% HP would lose the duel. The timer was set to 60 seconds. Now, all we had to do was wait.

"Careful," I told him, trying to sound advising. He raised an eyebrow before requesting clarification.

"what?" he asked in confusion.

"You might cut yourself with that edge of yours," I told him, now enraging him to the point where he could hardly stand still.

"You think a level 5 like you could beat a level 10 like me?!" he yelled, now angrier than ever.

"We'll just have to wait and see," I told him. 3...2...1... GO. We both ran at each other in full speed, each charging up our own punches.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Holy shit, what is it, like, 4 days since I've updated? That's really not like me. I'm sorry, I would be updating more frequently if I wasn't an IB STUDENT IN THE MIDDLE OF DOING MY PERSONAL PROJECT. Yeah, needless to say, times are tough, and I'm cutting back on the frequent updates. I have work to do, I'm so sorry. There is one thing you can do to motivate me to make more, ya know. Just follow/favorite or review one of the chapters. I'll definitely give more shits if you do that. (shameless self-promotion/rant complete)**

BTW: Credits go to BannaMan-Desu for inspiring me to write. Billy, u da real MVP

 **Black White**

 **Sherlock D(ick) Holmes**


	10. Chapter 10 - True Powers Revealed

_"We'll just have to wait and see," I told him. 3...2...1... GO. We both ran at each other at full speed, each charging up our own punches._

* * *

 _15:23 PM_

 _Giant's Expanse, 1st Kingdom_

* * *

Naruto OST 1 - Strong and Strike

* * *

As he ran at me with his punch ready to impact me, I did the same thing, only that I wasn't going to punch me. I aimed for his fist but before he got to hit it, I redirected the punch so he would be punching nothing. Surprised by the sudden loss of a surface to regain balance on, that was initially going to be my fist, he darted forwards almost falling due to the lack of balance. I kicked back quickly so as to analyze the situation. To my utter joy and surprise, other players were grinding in packs around our area and some were even dropping what they were doing just to see us fight.

"Pussy," he spat at me, poking fun at me not taking the punch.

"You are what you eat, Confucius," I replied, smirking. He didn't get angry this time. He gave me a defeated grin like he was all sport about losing just this once. We slowly approached each other, each step being a subject of intense debate in our heads. We were now a few steps in front of each other before stopping. We stood still, watching each other's muscles flex ever so slightly, reacting to those flexes with antagonistic flexes. We were signaling to each other where we were going to attack by these minute and unnoticeable flexes. To an outside viewer, it looked like we were standing there staring at each other. We were actually playing chess with each other. Shin took the initiative and attempted a karate chop at my neck, which was blocked right on time by the back of my hand. His other hand now tried to palm slam me in my solar plexus, which I took a step back to avoid. I went down to perform a sweep kick, sweeping my entire leg across his surface of which his body rested. He jumped over the kick while performing an aerial split. I quickly stood up from my pose and retained my stationary battle pose. He did the same thing as he landed on the ground from his evasive jump. This time, I attempted an open palm slam on his face. He moved his neck in the nick of time before having my palm imprinted on his pretty face. I hit him with the side of my hand by swinging it to where he relocated his head. This, evidently, threw him off balance and staggered him. _Check m8._ I kicked him in his chest dead-on, sending him skidding across the grass leaving a path of soil bare of any grass in his wake. He stood up, now pure anger in his countenance, and looked at me. He stood up and ran to me.

He kept attacking quickly with karate chops and punches, all blocked by me. I was barely keeping up with his attacks as he was so furious with his offensive. I tried blocking as much as I could, but ultimately he did hit me serveral times. I hadn't used an ounce of ki all this time because I knew I was stronger than this guy. After all, a strong person doesn't actively seek enemies, something I did not understand while I fought Kirito for the first time. I could probably wash the floor with his ass if I fought him back then again. He continued his barrage of attacks before I noticed a flaw in his technique. He didn't move his legs nearly enough as he should. I took advantage of this by parrying a hit this time, then attempting a counter-attack. This made him more busy in trying to block my attacks. Why didn't I do this much earlier? It would be less risky as keeping up a constant barrage is tiring. I feigned a punch. Before the fist even got close to him, I stopped the attack midway, now going down quickly, attempting another sweep kick. I got both of his legs off the ground as he was almost about to fall, but in seemingly lightning speed, I got below him before he fell and kicked him upwards by holding the ground with both my hands and kicking him upwards. Blood left his mouth as I kicked him in his ribs. In a fleeting moment, his stunned body was completely upright while mid-air. I concentrated my energy on simply keeping him airborne, not hurting him, so he was still healthy as ever. As he was floating, I jumped upwards in a fly kick pose. I aimed my leg towards his abdomen and hit it dead-on. He skidded across the field now, a trail of soil leading to his stunned body fleeting above 30% HP. He chuckled before saying something.

* * *

One Piece OST - Difficult [extended]

* * *

"So you're more than just meets the eye. That hit came by surprise, but that kick was just dirty play *tsk tsk*" he said, grabbing onto his chest in pain. "Well, I guess I can take off _these,_ " he said. He bent over to reveal what were on his ankles under his karate gi. A bracelet with pockets of weight on each of his ankles. He unstrapped it and lifted them up for me to see. He then threw them on the field and a slight cloud of dust was raised from where he threw them. Suddenly a big group of players that came closer by the minute gasped in awe. _'Was he carrying all that on his legs while still fighting?'_ they probably thought. Suddenly, next to his name, I saw his level increase by 4. He was now a level 14 player, his previously orange belt changing to green. All the while, I stood there silently, analyzing the entire process. There were now a large amount of players congregating around us, most likely 50 or so players scattered around the extremely large field, all watching from their respective vantage points. My clan were all watching with bated breaths, all but Murchada tensing their bodies. "Be a doll and try to last for more than 10 seconds, aight?" he spouted arrogantly before dashing towards me at an unbelievable speed. He leaped just before arriving at me and tried fly-kicking me. I blocked it with my forearm just barely before he leaped off of it, chipping off of my balance. I regained my balance before realizing that he was not done. He arrived just in front of me, a punch retracting far behind him before releasing, a small haze of black fog emanating from it. _Ki powered fist, this guy has skills._ I tried to block it without using my own ki, my biggest mistake, but he hit me. The impact sent me skidding across the field same as my kick had done to him. My HP was hovering just above 30%.

"You tired, kiddo?" he asked me condescendingly. I brushed the pain of my body before standing up.

"Nah, just hungry, that's all," I replied. He stared at me with a look of victory and disgust. "Oh, and by the way. What grade were those ankle weights of yours?" I asked him.

"They were 40lbs Stein series," he bragged with his arms crossed.

"HAHAHAHA! What good are the Stein series?! I'd rather use them for nipple piercing than ankle weights!" I replied, now finding this whole situation funny. Though I tried imitating a certain someone.

* * *

 _Mount Hasegawa_

 _60 days hell_

"Wear these ankle weights, kid," Lao Shi told me as he threw them across the floor with his talons. I tried picking them up casually, my biggest mistake. My back made an extremely weird and unsettling noise before realizing the weight of the load.

"What the hell are these, cargo load?" I asked him incredulously, stretching my back, attempting to soothe it.

"These are the 120lbs Metallicana series," he told me. What the hell are they, 120 lbs each? "Of course, you can't carry them yet, seeing as how you almost broke your spine tryna lift it. Imma give you the Stein series until you stop being such a pussy," he told me.

"How heavy are the Stein series?" I asked him nervously.

"40lbs each. Wouldn't even use them for nipple piercings, cuz they so pussy," he told me. _Walking around with 20 kilograms of weight on each of my legs? Damn._

"Oh, these are the wrist weights. Wouldn't wanna forget these ones," he added as he threw another pair of bracelets across the floor, also from the Stein series judging by the rocky design. "Enjoy," he said, and with that, he took off to his 'crib' in the skies.

* * *

"Since you removed yours, it might just seem fair to remove mine, dontcha think?" I asked him playfully. He raised his eyebrow before realizing. After the realization hit him, he quickly recovered and started to laugh.

"You are still no match for me. You talk big, boy. What's your weight grade, 'Wooden'?" he rebuked. This guy was getting more and more toxic as we continued speaking. I bent over to pull up the legs of my pants, revealing a lustrous silver bracelet with pockets of silver colored weights surrounding it. Shin's jaw dropped at the sight.

"Those aren't... they can't be... HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET YOUR HANDS ON THEM?!" Shin yelled in obvious fury. Our bystanders were all awestruck by my revealing of the burden I've carried all through this fight. I unstrap both of the ankle weights and pull up my sleeves to unstrap my wrist weights. I had all four weights on my hands before throwing them behind me one by one. They all raised smokescreens of dust where they landed and made heavy thuds on the field.

"Ah, I feel much lighter. Actually, I feel two hundred and forty kilograms lighter," I said as I stretched my back. I noticed my belt turned from white to green with a blue tinge instantaneously. I looked at my level and it increased from five to sixteen. Just above the threshold to going with Diabel for specifically targeting the boss. _Oh, well. I guess they won't be needing me anyhow._ Shin darted towards me as quickly as he could, now the ki in his fist very much visible. I raise up my arm, almost raising it too high due to the fact that I've been wearing these wrist weights for so long, my body seems to have become accustomed to applying the extra force to every movement. I stopped the impact with a small application of ki on my hand. I looked at my ki bar and it read: 982/1000. It seemed to have increased after my sudden 11-level-up spike.

I dashed off the ground and appeared behind him in the blink of an eye. I tapped him lightly on the shoulder. As he turned his head towards me to face me, I threw a punch heading straight at his face, my entire fist covered with ki and watch him airborne for a solid two seconds. Before landing, I quickly dashed behind where he was headed and kicked him forward again. As his body flew off, I followed it and before it got to its destination, I prepared a hook kick. Since I ran faster than he could fly, I got in front of him quickly and executed the attack. The ball of my heel hit him dead-on at his cheek, and he flew sideways this time. _This is so fun!_ I got below him before he landed and shot him upwards, this time much higher than I ever was capable of with the weights. I launched him up around twenty yards. I leaped as high as I could which was even above where he was. I spun forwards while holding my leg out. I spun like a wheel, and the leg was hardly visible as I spun so fast. The heel soon connected with his forehead, and he was sent spinning to the ground, almost buried by the surrounding soil. That was an extreme case of overkill, but I didn't mind. I sure showed him.

His HP was restricted from dropping below 30% as per the duel agreement, so he was simply lying there in pain, a congratulations message prompting me. I pressed okay and walked over to see the pile of shame and broken spirit huddled up into a shell of nothingness. I walked towards the area where I threw my weights and equipped them once again. Suddenly, I noticed around me people chanting my name like I've just slain a dragon. They all cheered for me, raising their fists high. They ran after me in a celebratory mood. As they reached me, they tried raising me high up, but it was a hard task for carrying almost 500 pounds wasn't easy.

"RYUUMA, RYUUMA, RYUUMA!" they shouted, all awestruck by the performance. I had just dispatched the infamous fighter Shin like a fly. From the corner of my eye, I see him standing up, potions and painkiller ingredients being munched as he rose. After healing sufficiently, he attempts to say something.

"Oi, Ryuuma! Good game," he shouted. I ordered my peasants to lay me down so I could walk towards him. I gave him my hand before he gave me his. We shook, and a smile grew on the guy's lips. The rest of our clan came to us, all of them except for Murchada shouting.

"That was amazing!" Karma, Silica, and Arisu shouted, stars embedded in their pupils. Murchada had a wide grin and came up to my holding out his hand so we could attempt a manly handshake.

"Bro, you also got your hands on Metallicana series? Holy shit were they hard to get, am I right?" he told me as he pulled up both of his sleeves and pants. I quickly pondered this, remembering that Lao Shi had given them to me. I realized just how grateful I wasn't for these seemingly treasured items.

"Actually, Lao gave 'em to me for free and all," I told him, raising my hands in an innocent manner, like 'I didn't know this shit would happen'. Murchada lost his smile quickly before continuing.

"This scar on my eye isn't the only one I got, asshole," he said while pointing at his scarred eye. He unequipped his clothing underneath the bear coat, revealing a number of scars and trauma he has endured. His entire abdominal area was covered with discolored skin and large stitched gashes. Well, that really didn't differ from my experiences. "THIS! This is what two pairs of Metallicana series of weights cost me, and you just tell me that some dumbshit hoodrat dragon came in and gave 'em to ya?!" he shouted. He re-equipped his shirt after everyone around us, including my peasant squad, got a good look at the result of the fun he had.

"Dude, it wasn't easy for me, either. He made me... I can't..." I tried saying, but only remembering the horrible, disgusting, humiliating things I endured while training with my dragon tutor.

"Excuse me guys, but you have a dragon?" a random peasant from my squad said as he came to approach Murchada. Well, shit, I guess we spilled the beans. Might as well let everyone know how badass the Lazy Dragons clan is.

"Yeah, we got one from a quest, and that's how we got the name for our clan," I told them, not even bothering to sound serious. They all stood there agape for a second before beginning an outburst.

"AWESOME, YOU GUYS HAVE A CLAN WE CAN JOIN?!" they all, more or less, shouted. Well, time to act as a war commander. This will be fun.

"Yeah, the Lazy Dragons. We accept anyone that's not a complete cunt," Murchada said, and with that, we now gained forty-eight new players in our clan. They were on a line heading towards Murchada. After a little vetting (basically checking if they're above level 5) he accepted them to our clan, but I made the original clan members admin members. This allowed them to have the same functions that I, the clan leader, had, except for the power to dissolve the clan. Everything else was shared. We decided to divide the manpower equally to each member of the clan. There would be a problem as there would be three left if we divided as equally as we could. I pondered this for a while before a diminutive figure plowed through the crowd.

"About the offer to let me join the Lazy Dragons, it's still up or what?" Shin asked me while facing me directly. I smiled at his newfound humility and replied.

"Sure, why not?" I said. He smiled at me faintly before resuming his average badass expression.

"Then I'd like to take the offer," he said. I nodded in approval, and with that, he picked up his ankle weights and equipped them.

* * *

What came after the humiliating fight was hours of grinding and fun. We had everyone level at least above 8 now, and now that I was the highest leveled player, Murchada being level 12, I lead them on with our grinding. By now our clan was moderately strong and would most likely gain traction pretty easily as a large number of people are already in our guild. The three most prominent clan grunts were VoodooSnake, Vinsmoke, and Six-6. They were the most outspoken of all of them and could very well become senior members in the foreseeable future. As for now, it was our task to divide the clan into divisions of 8 grunts and a senior member. We chose each of our members on our own discretion and also by which one that we felt were appropriate for us, and so I've got a team of 8 people! Now I'll just have to train them.

It was generally a division for each member and we devised a system where the senior members can summon their division if they wish to. I believed with a burning heart that this clan is what Martial Arts Online needed to allow the other players to regain their morale. We will be the clan that stands at the top. We will beat the 'pros', as that is what we call them these days, the professional practitioners IRL, although not a single pro has been since the early days of the deadly revelation. I had no idea where this newfound conviction stemmed from, but I liked it. I, at least, have a function in this god forsaken game.

It quickly became dark before we decided to rest our heads for the night and head back to Kishiburo. I let them all go back, but I remained. I wanted to do some extra training. The 55 skill points earned from my inexplicable shonen-anime-esque powerup were put to good use and now I'm stronger than ever. I fought a pack of six giants now. This was gonna get hard. I jumped as they all simultaneously hammered the ground. I landed on the head of one before taking off to fly-kick another one. I broke its neck and killed it in one shot. I descended before it burst into a blue shower. I was on the giant's feet now. I attempted a sweep kick powered with ki so it could be more effective than simply bumping the creature's foot with your leg. The giant lost balance and fell down. I dashed to his head before stomping it and killing it in two shots. 4 left. Before I continued, a winged figure dove down through the clouds. It was hard to see due to the darkness shrouding all light, but the creature was undeniably him. Lao Shi. He landed elegantly on the ground before taking a deep breath. What came after was a stream of fire spewed from his mouth incinerating the giants almost instantaneously.

"No fair, they were my prey," I told him, sulking.

"Nuff 'bout that. 'sup with taking all your weights off in that fight you had?" he asked me as he crouched down into a spiral like a snake.

"Huh? You watched the fight? Well, I was more or less carried away by all the action," I told him, withholding some truth to my statement.

"Bullshit. You just wanted to look cool in front of the crowd, didn't ya?" he replied, a smug smile showing at his lips. He was spot-on but I didn't show it. Instead, I tried furthering the lie.

"Why the hell would I want that? C'mon those people don't mean shit to me," I replied. Now he'll definitely know I was lying.

"Ryuuma. I say this for your own good. Don't be corrupted by your own power. That'll make you no different from the 100 kings," he said, omitting all the slang now. That just meant he was dead serious.

"Wh-well I wasn't going to kill him," I replied. He looked at me with a serious expression before continuing.

"Your eyes, kid. You thoroughly enjoyed beating the shit out of the guy. You liked it, and you were drunk with the power. Don't try to lie to me, boy, I saw it," he began. I realized just how much I enjoyed the match for all the wrong reasons.

"Your power isn't the strongest in the lands. There are others stronger than you by a lot. Hell, there are others in this kingdom that even befriended dragons, though you must be the first to have done so," he warned. _Others with dragons? Welp, there goes my 'special snowflake' badge._

"Lao Shi, I'm telling you, there's nothing to worry about. I won't remove the weights for stupid reasons again, alright?" I told him, now a bit peeved by his persistence.

"It ain't about that. It's about the fact that you think you're hot shit now. People think you're hot shit, now, and I know for a fact that there are people in that very city that are stronger than you. Don't try to make a reputation for yourself when you can't do shit to show for it. The higher you fly, the harder you fall," he said. For some reason, this did make me very angry, so my reply was pretty uncalled for.

"I don't give a single damn about other people! I'll be stronger than them! I'll be stronger than Kirito! I'll be stronger than the dojo masters! I'll be even stronger than you-" he interrupted me as he smacked me with the blunt side of his talons, launching me around 3 meters high before falling on the soil. He threw me around 20 yards. Lao Shi now wore a furious expression as he slithered towards my aching body.

"Ya think being 'strong' is being able to fight people and defeat them? You think strength is measured in how much blood you have on your hands?! You think strength is measured in how much people fear you?! Strength isn't measured in anything physical. Strength is abstract!" he yelled as he now hovered above the ground as smoke escaped from his nose. I quickly came to my senses, now. _What the... this isn't me. I'm not corrupted. This... This isn't me at all!_ I gathered all the strength I had to stand up and face him with the dignity I have.

"You're right... I'm sorry for acting up. Please forgive me," I said, and with that, I put my right fist against my stretched out left hand and bowed. Lao Shi then calmed down as he slowly descended and the smoke stopped leaving his nose. He calmed completely before continuing.

"I sense turmoil in your soul, kid. Meditate some and get in touch with your inner demon. Pacify him, and you'll be alright. Your inner demon was stronger than I thought," he mumbled the last part. "Well, gotta go, boy. Remember, don't leave your spirit until you pacify your inner demon," he concluded, and with that, he tensed before shooting towards the clouds and escaping towards the sky in a vertical axis as if penetrating the very sky. I then realized that it was around 6:00 PM. I quickly hurried back to Kishiburo. It took a few minutes, but I arrived. I went to the biggest inn I could find. It was called the 'Rotuma Inn and Tavern'. I stepped inside to see a whole group of my clan members dancing and singing with jugs filled to the brim with sake. I saw my old friends sitting around a table in the corner, eating and having fun all the while.

"CHEERS FOR RYUUMA OF THE LAZY DRAGONS!" one shouted the moment he saw me. Suddenly, all activity ceased before another person yelled something.

"CHEEEERS!" he yelled, and with that, the entire room was filled with a loud and clear 'cheers'. After that, all activity continued and the singing and dancing continued. I walked towards the table where my friends sat. They had conveniently left some space for me.

"With all the money we got, we rented the entire inn for the night," Murchada informed me. _Holy shit, that's a lot of money wasted on a place to sleep. Outside is as good a place as any, right?_

"Ugh, what a waste," I sighed as I held both the sides of my head in despair.

"By the way, big-bro. What were you doing back there? I heard someone else with you, but I couldn't make out who he was," Silica asked.

"It was Lao Shi. Apparently he watched the fight and was none-too-pleased by what he saw," I admitted. I gained Shin's attention before he asked me a question that had been bugging him for a while.

"Who is Lao Shi?" he asked confused. This earned him a few chuckles from the other members. They were anticipating his reaction and were already amused by what they thought he would probably say.

"A blue serpentine dragon with a white Fu Manchu that speaks ebonics," I replied. This earned me an ominous stare from Shin.

"Ha ha, very funny," he replied, now pissed off.

"We're not even joking. We'll show you the guy tomorrow. You'll swallow your words," Arisu said, now everyone in the table laughing at Shin's stupefied look.. Out of nowhere, a new member of the clan approached us. His gamer tag was Vinsmoke. He, incredibly enough, wore normal black pants and a dinner jacket with a blue shirt and a matching black tie on the inside. The significance of the suit was that it was very elastic and also elegant at the same time. He had short cut blond hair and a sharp jawline that gave him androgynous characteristics.

"Hey, fellas. Let's make some noise!" he shouted, and with that, pulled Karma up from where she was sitting and danced with her. At first, she was reluctant, but he did manage to bring the fun side out of her and she ended up enjoying herself. They danced to the song that the people in the inn were singing that was _Bink's Sake,_ a song from a really popular anime.

"Gather up all of the crew, time to ship of Bink's Brew~" they sang, and all the people who knew it sang loudly while the ones who didn't simply followed and hummed to the tune. Needless to say, we had a blast. It was around 1:00 AM before the last drunkard hit the hay, and with that, I retreated to my room.

I locked the door behind me and took a lotus position. I sat down and concentrated on nothing but my breathing and vitality. Before I knew it, my body was transported to my mind. I opened my eyes to find myself standing. Right before me stood a man that looked just like me. The only difference is that all of his colour including his skin and hair was an inversion of my colors. He was my exact opposite. I could feel the power emanating from him, now. This would be bad if I somehow managed to empower him. Just before I spoke up, the widened his grin across his cheeks and said something.

"Nice seeing you again," he said as he licked around his lips with a serpentine tongue.

* * *

 **Hey, guise. I have finally updated. Do not worry, I'm not dead. I'm merely busy is all. I've been thinking about making Ryuuma go through inner turmoil a little. Oh, and if the powerup just now was really inexplicable, just know that Ryuuma isn't the strongest. There are others who've reached LVL 16 without the use of weights. The weights are just there to dull your abilities, and when you take them off, you level up according to how long you've worn them. Your strength also increases the longer you wear them, so that's why Ryuuma was strong enough to lift the weights.**

 **Before you say it, yes. I am shitty at making names. I'm also shitty at writing fight scenes, so I'm sorry if what I wrote made no sense. I just tried to be as descriptive as possible.**

 **For all you romance nuts, I will add some romance involving the main character, but I'd rather have my testicles smashed into pieces than pairing Ryuuma to either Arisu, Silica, Shin, Murchada, any boy actually, any underage girl actually, and any girl with low self-esteem. That ain't his type. If you like serious Lao Shi more than the chill one, trust me, he's gonna get way more serious afterwards, and especially after he shows his true form.**

 **As always, favorite or follow if you liked it and just leave a review for the love of god. It could be anything. Love/hate/criticism. As long as you write one, I'll be happy.**

 **\- Sherlock D(umbass) Holmes.**


	11. Chapter 11 - The Prince of Hell: Part 1

_"Nice seeing you again," he said as he licked around his lips with a serpentine tongue_.

* * *

 _Anthony's Psyche, Rotuma Tavern and Inn_

 _1:00 AM_

We were in an open expanse with horizons stretching far across. The ground was a yellowish, red color with the sky looking like a green carpet. It was surreal to say the least, nothing like the familiarity that once greeted me upon my last "visit".

"So, what's the matter. Something bugging you?" he asked me cheekily, his wide crazy grin spooking me somewhat.

"I want you to quit influencing my actions," I told him, with a lack of other words.

"Do you, now? Well, I wonder how you'll be able to do that." he answered me sarcastically. I had no real idea of how to deal with him. I just figured that I needed to do it as quickly as possible, but I never realized how hopeless I truly was.

"Well, how do I deal with you? I don't know if beating the shit out of you is any effective," I told him, pinching my chin gently as I was pondering on it.

"Well, I guess not, since that's just fucking stupid," he replied, chuckling slightly.

"Yeah, I guess you're righ-HEY, are we getting along?!" I yelled as I suddenly realized what was happening.

"Duh, otherwise you would be the same whiny kid you were two months ago, right?" he replied.

"You dumb bastard, I still don't like you. You know what, this whole visit was pointless, I can fight you in the real world, I don't have to enter this shithole to do so," I realized angrily.

"I'd love to see you try," he replied, crossing his arms. He knew what he was doing. Holy shit, this feels like I'm watching Fight Club, and he is my Tyler Durden. Anyways, I left the inner room as quickly as possible and appeared in the real world, cold sweat running down my forehead. I retreated to my futon and had a good night sleep.

* * *

 _8:00 AM, Rotuma Inn and Tavern_

"Alright, newfags, let's get started. You're gonna be divided into separate divisions and you're gonna go out and grind with each of your captains or division leaders. These are me, Ryuuma, Karma, Arisu, and Shin. Silica has been demoted and is now a member of Karma's Division. Now, I wanna see you build camaraderie and good teamwork. If any of your friends got divided and are not in your division, we can work it out that we all have at least one friend in their division," Murchada stated in the inn where the entirety of the guild was huddled up after last night's party.

"We'll head out to the main gate of town and from then on, we are completely divided. We'll be surviving for 4 days outside of the city gates, no real biggy there, but if anything happens, don't hesitate to contact your captains, got it?!" Murchada asked loudly. He received affirmation from all the members. With that, we headed for the city gate and left. Now I was being followed by eight members of the guild that I handpicked for shits and giggles. I didn't pick them for their prowess in hand-to-hand combat, but simply how they acted. I'd rather laugh on a long journey than do pushups with some karate jocks. The people in my division were all whacky looking and quite weird, just my type.

* * *

 _9:00 AM, Rotuma Inn and Tavern_

"Whaddya mean we head to the outer rim?" a guy in my division replied. His name was Tetsu, a serious-faced bloke with a mohawk and bandaged arms and legs. He also wore nothing but red shorts, which made him look like a boxer if I didn't know any better. He was a Muay Thai practitioner.

"Well, dwelling in the grasslands is boring as hell, and the giant's expanse is already getting boring. The outer rim is where shit gets down!" I replied gleefully while itching my fists.

"But there are unknown beasts in the outer rim, some we don't even know anything about. I say we trek up the mountains in search for Azure Cranes. They sure are tasty," A large man called Fet said. He was a sumo-wrestler who wore nothing but a loincloth made of rope and cloth. He was a gentle-faced fellow that was constantly nibbling on rice crackers, but his sheer size was imposing. He was at least, three inches taller than Murchada, who is already 6 foot 3 inches.

"C'mon, Fet. It'll be fun. Besides, the head captain, which is me, picked all of you. You should feel honored and look at all challenges as small obstacles!" I told them in an attempt to cheer them up. Eventually, Fet gave in and nodded in approval.

"Whatever happens, I'm still with you, cap'n," Vinsmoke the elegant dresser told me. Today he unbuttoned his dinner jacket, thus exposing his ocean-blue shirt.

"See? Vinsmoke gets it! It'll be fun, and besides, if danger arises, I'll be sure to help, and if anything else happens, I'll call a _friend_ ," I revealed in an attempt to calm these people down.

"We'll follow you wherever, master!" said one of the younger recruits called Shiro. He wore a black Tai Chi outfit and his hair was black, completely contrasting his name. He was always side by side with his twin brother, Kuro, who had a white Tai Chi outfit and had white hair. They were both relatively short, both of them being 5 foot 5.

"Well, that makes 4 out of 8. What's it gonna be, Tetsu, Jax, Hakurai and Tel?" I said while crossing my arms as I looked at the defiant members.

"Whatever, I'm with you, Cap," Tetsu replied reluctantly.

"Count me in, I suppose," Jax, a tall boxer with bandaged fists said. He wore blue shorts and had an afro. His dark skin tone made him also resemble Muhammed Ali minus the extra weight. Jax seemed to be a welterweight, a lower-middleweight, in boxing lingo.

"Do I have a choice?" Hakurai, the only girl in the group said. She had bandages covering her breasts instead of normal clothing and looked quite skimpy. She wore tight leggings in order to preserve flexibility, and also look good. I'll be damned if I reveal that I picked her simply because of the eye-candy, but hell, we all do get thirsty and some point, and don't forget, I _am_ an RPG-geek.

"Oh, I never disagreed. I just didn't speak up," a taciturn and dark figure called Tel said, the first thing I've ever heard him say, no less. For some reason, he chose to hide his level. He sure is a strange one. He never gets emotional, not even during my fight with Shin, were I'd wager that most of the onlookers did get excited somewhat. He wore a dark robe and had a hood that hid most of his face in the shadows. I can admit he was a special case, as I picked him not for his interestingness, but simply because I was curious of what might hide under his robe, in a non-perverted way, of course! _Dammit, why do I always have to sound so perverted?_

"Then let's get going, kiddos!" I yelled, jumping high up in the air in an attempt to get everybody fired up. The only ones who jumped with me were Vinsmoke and the twins. All the rest smiled and pumped their fists in the air, all but Tel. Thus our 2-day long journey on foot to the outer perimeter of the First Kingdom, where the strongest monsters lay began. Our map was very clear on guiding us. Right where we stood, we were in the large planes of the Grasslands, the easiest area. To reach the outer rim we would have to get past the large mountain chain known as the Great Akamaru mountain chain. After that, we'll have to cross the Giant's expanse, that covered a whole third of the map. Afterwards, we arrive in the Outer Rim, an area with thick grey fog and dead trees where nothing grows and food needs to be conserved so as not to get too hungry.

* * *

 _11:00 AM, Grasslands_

We have been walking for a grand total of two hours, and it has been quite a blast. Apparently, Jax is a professional when it comes to imitations. We've been laughing without ending at his imitations of Murchada.

"I'll snap your neck in half, asshole!" Jax yelled while he tried imitating a threat that Murchada made during the party last night. This earned a laugh from virtually everyone save for Tel. Tetsu, despite his serious attitude most of the time, was literally rolling on the floor laughing while cupping his aching abs.

"P-please, I can't take it anymore!" Tetsu yelled with serious difficulty between gasps. The laughing must have gotten to him. Fet had tears rolling down his cheeks laughing at both Jax and Tetsu.

"You've never felt a bear rip you a new one, I guess," Jax continued while he imitated another threat that Murchada made during the party. For some reason, Tetsu's reaction just makes it all even funnier, thus creating a chain reaction of contagious laughter, giving us an entire laughter epidemic on our hands. I couldn't stop myself from laughing, at both Tetsu and Jax. We somehow kept this up for an entire hour before stumbling upon a little boy in the middle of the field lying down while unconscious. This threw us all out of our laughing mood. I was the first one to react and got there before anyone else. I kneeled down and elevated the kid's head with my hand in an attempt to wake him up. I checked for his pulse, and thankfully he was alive. I slapped him lightly on the cheek in an attempt to wake him up, which I did, but also left a mark on his face much to my stupidity. The child slowly began to regain consciousness before yelling loudly, which caught all of us by surprise. It was a scared yell, not meant to hurt anyone. I tried asking him a few questions.

"What happened, kid?" I tried asking.

"W-water... I-I need..." Was all he could say before his lips were blocked by the mouth of a bottle of water that Fet speedily threw to me at the first sound of the word "water". He drank quickly, almost choking in the same water meant to save his life.

"Any better, now?" I asked him. He nodded with a small smile on his mouth, then suddenly a question mark appeared over his head. Suddenly I realized what was going on. A hidden quest, hell yeah! I heard the twins whisper the word 'quest' with glee, and the air in the group suddenly lightened.

"Yes," the boy said. He was in a daze waiting for the water to quench his thirst before remembering the horrendous events that transpired the night before. He suddenly became extremely nervous before asking.

"You have to save m-my father, you must!" he stated while being visibly nervous. He stood up quickly before continuing.

"He was taken by bandits in a clan known as the Dragon's Coffin! They suddenly appeared at our village in the middle of the night and snatched my father. I tried following them but they were too fast for me!" he revealed as he spoke extremely quickly.

"Calm down, tell us where they went," Hakurai ordered.

"At the Outer Rim of the kingdom. You've got to save him before they kill him!" he said, and with that, our quest journals were updated and his question mark disappeared, only to be replaced with an exclamation mark once we finish the quest in the near future.

"Alright, kiddo. You've gotta go home, now. Where's your village?" I asked. If I wanted the quest reward, then I should, at least make an effort to keep the quest giver alive.

"I-uh come from Hope Village," he said as he scratched the back of his head while looking down. Judging by the other people's blank expressions, I'm guessing they don't the distance between here and that forsaken village.

"Holy shit, how far did you run?! Hope is like 40 kilometers south from here!" I yelled awestruck. Saying that I was shocked at his tenacity was an understatement, and to make matters worse, he ran until he grew exhausted.

"Whatever it takes to get my father back," he replied silently as he tightened his fists while looking at the ground. Tel then approached the kid and kneeled with a single knee and patted his head.

"Don't worry, I'll take you home," Tel said. The kid looked up at his face happily and rejoiced as he tried suppressing his tears.

"Thanks, sir! Err, my name is Lok," he said. Tel stood up and faced me.

"Give me 3 hours and I'll catch up with you, Captain," he said emotionlessly with an androgynous voice.

"You sure? That's pretty damn fast," I told him, very much doubting his ability. Tel nodded. He carried Lok on his back and bolted forwards with an Olympics-tier speed, but the real crazy thing was that he was consistently running with that speed, placing him far above Olympics-tier, almost anime-tier.

"You heard that, guys? Off to the Outer Rim as quickly as possible. The rest nodded, and with that, we were on to our first ever mission. Now, all we did was run towards the big ass mountain chain in the horizon while swatting of different low-level mobs.

* * *

 **Well, I guess this can do for a chapter. I am so so so so sorry for my inactivity. I've been coping with a writer's block mixed with my extreme time constriction. I hope you can forgive me by following and favoriting this excuse of a chapter. Also, leave a review if you hate the story as much as I do. I'm having my easter holiday this week which means, I have so much time to update. I'm gonna try updating tomorrow. Note: Keyword is "Try".**

 **Kind Regards**

 **Sherlock D(ickhead) Holmes**


	12. Chapter 12 - The Prince of Hell: Part 2

_"Don't worry, I'll take you home," Tel said. The kid looked up at his face happily and rejoiced as he tried suppressing his tears._

 _"Thanks, sir! Err, my name is Lok," he said. Tel stood up and faced me._

 _"Give me 3 hours and I'll catch up with you, Captain," he said emotionlessly with an androgynous voice._

 _"You sure? That's pretty damn fast," I told him, very much doubting his ability. Tel nodded. He carried Lok on his back and bolted forwards with an Olympics-tier speed, but the real crazy thing was that he was consistently running with that speed, placing him far above Olympics-tier, almost anime-tier._

 _"You heard that, guys? Off to the Outer Rim as quickly as possible," The rest nodded, and with that, we were on to our first ever mission. Now, all we did was run towards the big ass mountain chain in the horizon while swatting of different low-level mobs._

* * *

 _13:45 PM_

 _Grasslands, foot of the first mountain in the Great Akamaru chain, Mt. Remon_

"So we meet again, dumb rock," I mumbled silently as we approached the foot of the massive mountain, or more technically, a cliff that led to the rest of the mountain chain stretching far beyond our peripheral view. It was a steep 90-degree ascent that would surely require some sort of training equipment. At the foot of the cliff, around a hundred meters away, there was an old shack inside. As we approached the shack, an old man greeted us welcome. It was a mountain-climbing shack, much to our joy. The walls inside the shack were lined with several shelves holding mountain climbing tools such as extremely long ropes, hooks and pickaxes and a bunch of other things.

"Welcome, welcome, weary travelers! What can I interest you with?" the man said as he smiled widely. He had a wide slouch hat on his head, giving him the appearance of an old cowboy prospector. His facial hair completely covered his mouth and grew until the bottom of his chest.

"Uhm, we need a really long rope and a hook," I told him. He was, at least, two heads shorter than me. He looked up at me and asked me something else.

"How long do you want the rope to be?" he asked simply. I pondered the question before answering.

"How high is this cliff?" I asked as I pointed upwards with my hand next to my head.

"I guess, 932 meters high," he replied. He now rested both his arms on the counter and rested his chin on top of them.

"Well, in that case, I'll have a rope that's 933 meters long," I stated proudly as I pointed at a large wheel that stood upright by a wall. The wheel had a large roll of rope

inside. The rest of the group were just dumbfounded by the request.

"That'll be 10,000 col," he said as he was rubbing his hands together at the prospect of such an amount of money. I suddenly realized that we were broke from the night before. We rented the inn and drank the tavern dry. We obviously spent too much money. After hearing this, I signaled the merchant to wait a minute before gathering the members of the division and holding them shoulder to shoulder as if on a strategy meeting.

"I've got 500 col in my pocket right now. Let's pool in all our money," I told them. There was a moment of awkward silence before somebody 'contributed'.

"No can do, Cap'n. I spent all my money on booze," Tetsu admitted.

"All I've got is 200 col, but the sake sure tasted good," Hakurai admitted too. I soon realized just how unprepared we were.

"I've only got a thousand, but that's just cuz the booze tasted like horse piss," said Jax the comedian.

"I've got three thousand col on me right now for emergency money in case I run out of food," Fet contributed. Alright, we're almost there.

"Sorry, chief. We spent all our money on some cake last night," one of the twins said, effectively answering for the both of them. Another bout of awkward silence occurred from Vinsmoke's ominous lack of input.

"Uhmm... guy's, I'm broke," Vinsmoke finally said. What did we expect? That he would be able to dish out 5.3k col after last night? We all sighed after he said that. I quickly searched my inventory before finding some gems that were buried deep inside.

"Well, all I've got are some few gems that we could barter with. Don't worry, guys, captain's got this," I said. I collected the cash and presented it to the merchant. He quickly lost his bright smile which was replaced by a dogging stare.

"This isn't even half what I asked for. I ain't lowering the price, times are tough, ya know!" he yelled as he slammed his fist onto the counter.

"We've got Dragonite crystal, and a bunch of other types!" I said. He quickly regained his smile and said what we all wanted to hear.

"Show me," he said as he rubbed his hands together in a vile manner. I spawned the gems in and showed it to him. He looked up at us smiling and told us to come with him. We followed him over to where the tools are.

"Aight, ladies. Mountain climbing's pretty damn perilous, y'all know that, right? Unfortunately, my shack doesn't do no 'safety'. Can't afford the equipment. I'll get my cannon out. It'll fire the rope with the hook up to the top of the cliff. Now it's up to you to climb there safely," he said. "You wait outside for me. It'll just take a few minutes,". We continued outside and waited for him to bring out his so called cannon. In the meantime, I coordinated my subordinates.

"The heaviest one stays at the bottom, alright? I stay at the top and the lightest one comes below me," I said. This earnt me a mouthful from nearly everyone. Everyone except Fet, who nibbled on his rice crackers, raged on.

"Don't gimme that shit, you don't get to stay at the top just cuz you're leading us!" Tetsu yelled as he was grabbing me by his collar.

"Lemme at him too! Dumbass who the hell do you think you are?!" Hakurai yelled as she pushed herself onto me, effectively grabbing my collar too. Can't say I was displeased by that.

"Chief, we do not want to die like this! Do not fail us, Chief!" the ever-faithful twins said.

"Aw hell naw, you ain't going first. Not with them heavy ass weights, you ain't!" Jax said. This explained everything as I suddenly came to realize how heavy I am. I quickly swiped the air and opened my inventory. I quickly unequipped my weights before telling them.

"Guys, guys. It's alright. I removed the weights. No need to get so physical," I told them. This loosened most of their grips except for Hakurai's. She was still yelling at me for an unknown reason.

"What's wrong, dammit?!" I said as I tried shaking her off me.

"Put me at the bottom. I'm not sure I'll be able to handle all those people looking up at my... YOU KNOW!" she yelled. I tried suppressing a laughter after hearing the reason for her anger.

"Don't worry. You'll be above me to have the highest chance of survival," I said, trying to get a good spot as we were climbing. She stopped talking for a minute before she realized what my true intentions were. After the realization had struck her, she slapped me really hard.

"Screw survival. I know what you're after, captain, and I'm not allowing you to see anything," she replied, and let go of my collar. "If anyone asks, I'm below Fet, and there ain't no one going below me!" she stated loudly, making sure that the entire group heard her. After that, the old man came out of his shack with an ancient-looking mortar that was connected to the rope reel. There was a hook at the tip of the rope that made sure that after the rope fired, the hook would hook onto something in order to make the rope climbable. The man brought the mortar a distance away from the face of the cliff before lighting the fuse that was going to fire the mortar. After a few seconds, the fuse burnt out and the rope was about to be launched, was it not for a mechanical issue that resulted in the destruction of the mortar. The device exploded after the fuse burnt out, thus blowing the old man back a few yards.

"Old man!" Tetsu yelled. He ran to him as he was the closest. The man, however, was just lying on the ground coughing, dusting his clothes before standing up.

"Oh lord. It seems we have some technical issues here. Now unless you can throw the hook rope over the ledge of the cliff, then I guess you won't be going anywhere, unless you take the detour, that's at least 5 miles east of here," he said as he looked up at us, still smiling. Wait, throw the hook rope? That might not be such a dumb idea...

"It's fine, old man. We're still gonna ascend this cliff," I said. This earnt me some murmurs from the crowd.

"How are you planning on that, Captain?" Vinsmoke asked blankly.

"I'm gonna hurl it, what else?" I told them without looking at them directly. I was too busy scanning the length of the cliff and the weight of the hook rope.

"Yeah, tough luck, dumbass. Ain't nobody that can do that on our current level," Tetsu scoffed. Hakurai quickly came and nudged him lightly before whispering to his ears.

" _Don't take the captain too lightly. You saw it too yesterday. The strength that managed to bind 50 people together into a single guild in the span of ten minutes_ ," whispered Hakurai. Tetsu quickly realized that his comment might not be as factual as he thought it was.

"Fet, get over here. I want you to throw the hook rope as high as possible. You've got most points invested in STR, anyways," I said. I quickly received Fet's attention as he approached me. He took the hook rope that I handed him with his right hand. He took a step forward with his left leg. The leg came crashing downwards with a force so strong, he actually dug his foot half an inch in the soil. He did the same to his right leg as he raised it before making it crash down with an extreme force too. This anchored him nicely to the ground. He then arched his back backward, with his arm stretching behind him before letting it come up with an extreme velocity. The hook rope flew extremely high, almost reaching the halfway point before giving in to gravity and returning. Just before it hit the ground, to avoid any damage to the hook, I caught the rope.

"Nicely done, Fet. I wasn't aiming to get the hook rope up through you. I was just using you as a benchmark. Don't worry, you did well," I said, patting the docile man-child on his back. "Oh, by the way, how many points do you have on STR?" I asked him before he returned to where he was sitting.

"I've got 45," he said. 45, huh? That's cute.

"Alright," I told him. This time, I was the one preparing for the throw. I put my left leg in front of my right and arched my back before letting my arm go with an amazing speed. I threw with all the might I could muster as well as a large application of Ki on my back and arms. The moment I threw, dust dispersed from where I was standing and my feet dug themselves a few centimeters in the soil, evidence of Newton's third law of motion. The hook rope managed to get past Fet's highest point in a matter seconds. The hook rope continued on a lot longer than that.

"You don't mean..." Tetsu said as he was awestruck by my showcase.

"You can't be..." Jax stated as he was awestruck by what he saw. The rest kept quiet and watched. After what felt like an eternity, the hook landed on the ledge. I tugged on the rope to make sure that it was fastened nicely. After confirming that it was tightened using the weight of Fet, we finally felt it safe enough to climb on.

"Alright, then. The lightest one goes to the top and heaviest stays at the bottom," I said. This earned me a cold stare from Hakurai.

"Uh-oh, no-can-do, cap. I'm at the back whether you like it or not," she said.

"No. That's a safety risk and I'm not about to risk your life," I said in the most serious tone I could muster.

"C'mon, Haku. It'll be great! You'll have the highest chance of survival, you'll be the first to get to the top, and you'll motivate us to continue going no matter how tired we get!" Jax added in hopes of convincing her.

"Do it already, ya moron, we ain't waiting for ya forever," Tetsu added. Hakurai finally conceded.

"Well... okay," she said as she gave in to the demand.

"Alright you stay first, then I follow, then after that, Kuro and Shiro, then Jax, then Tetsu, then Vinsmoke, then Fet," I said, hoping that my team members wouldn't catch on to my true intent.

"Hey... wait a minute... something's not right, here! Captain must be at least as heavy as Vinsmoke, yet he put himself right behind Hakurai?!" Tetsu yelled. This earnt me the suspicion of everybody.

"Hey, hey, hey. Guys, I'm the captain so I decide what's best for the group, alright?" I said. Now Jax, Tetsu, and even Vinsmoke were on my throat.

"GUYS, PLEASE! I JUST WANT THIS OPPORTUNITY ONCE IN MY LIFE!" I pleaded as I struggled to keep the testosterone driven savages away from me.

"Ya hear that?! Horny ass pervert!" Tetsu yelled. That did it. I snapped and threw everyone that were currently on me far away due to my abrupt stand.

"That's enough!" I said as I stood up. "Listen up, kiddos. I'm gonna be behind Hakurai whether your asses are okay about it or not, ain't nothing you assholes can do shit about, got it?!" I yelled. This made Tetsu, Jax and Vinsmoke sit on their knees while they kept their hands on their knees while looking down.

"WE'RE SORRY, CAPTAIN!" they yelled in unison. I calmed down enough to reply.

"Good, now let's get moving. We're burning sunlight.

* * *

 _14:30_

 _On the face of Mt. Remon's Cliff_

The mountain is exhausting. I feel like letting go of the rope anytime, but there was one thing that kept me motivated to continue living. It wasn't Arisu, nor was it Karma or Murchada. It was the two guiding lights in front of me. My balloon-shaped muses beckoned me to continue no matter the cost. I was determined not to let go. Hakurai's behind would never let me. I was enthralled by it.

* * *

 _15:20_

 _On the ledge of Mt. Remon_

It was a long and winding journey. Terrible was a good word for it, almost flattering, for that's how horrific it was. We had neither harnesses nor did we have any form of safety equipment. The only thing we had was rope and our own two hands. The game was hyped for its lifelikeness in the replication of human anatomy in certain aspects. Perhaps this was the reason why most of our hands were scraped and riddled with blisters and scraped skin. I had the fortune of ki which I used to coat my palms throughout the journey, but it was short-lived. I only had so much ki to spare and I eventually ran out. My comrades on the other hands suffered the worst fates as their hands were done for. They were also extremely tired, save for me, Jax the welterweight, Vinsmoke, and the twins. The rest were gasping for air in this new-found thin atmosphere. I was already accustomed to this air so it was all the same to me. When we arrived at the top, we all simply sat down and either appreciated the view or dealt with oxygen shortage. I was simply looking around, assessing my surroundings. Mt. Remon still had a few hundred meters on it until the peak. Right in front of us was a large black cave entrance which sure gave me the heeby-jeebies. I simply looked away and waited for my comrades to regain their lives. It took a few minutes before everyone came to, and that was my cue to speak.

"So, how was the climb?" I asked almost teasingly in hopes of getting a few laughs. Everyone moaned and some yelled 'Don't ask'. Fet had the worst of it, since he was the heaviest climber. His face still had a tinge of blue from his oxygen deprivation.

"Alright, alright, I get it. Now, since we're here, let's refer to our map," I said as I activated the map in my menu. "According to this map," I said as I pointed around at it. "We're in front of a dungeon. Ya see that big entrance over there? That's gonna take us a maximum of like three hours to complete," I stated, half-expecting a grown or two from my motley gang of weirdos, which I received. "We still aren't sure what occurs inside most dungeons, alright? We ought to stay close to each other," I finished. We stood up and took some stretches before replenishing all our stamina. We were then ready to go.

* * *

15:30

Inside Mt. Remon's Dungeon: The Misty Cove

The cave was extremely eery. There were torches aligned on the walls on ten-meter intervals, which gave the areas in between each torch a horrifying air. We continued walking through the pathway that was fairly wide, not cramping us up at all. We had been walking for what almost seemed like ten minutes before the torches stopped appearing on the walls. The path, however, was very much there, but now there was no light to illuminate it. I stopped everyone before we entered into the darkness.

"Hold the person next to you's hands. We have to connect so we won't lose each other," I said. I felt after Hakurai's thin hands and grabbed gently so as to prevent her to connecting to someone else. After a few seconds of holding hands, we finally all connected. It was an awkward cluster with little mobility and maneuverability. After a short while of walking, I could feel the ground sloping ever so slightly. What I didn't expect was how abrupt it was. I accidentally tripped due to my inability to measure the distance between the ground and my leg. I brought down the whole gang with me. Once we were finished tumbling down the stone slope, we were met with a giant wooden door with spikes protruding from metal beams that supported it that was illuminated by four torches that were lined on the sides of the door. It was stereotypical, to say the least, almost like it was ripped off from nearly every MMORPG in existence. Me being the geek I was immediately realized what this is. They, however, were not that well-versed in games. From what I once read from a survey, a large number of the people that were buying the game were first-time gamers that haven't touched any other game. Most of the gamers were either delinquents, martial arts enthusiasts or actual professional martial artists. A small portion, i.e my sister and I, were actually just there for the fun of it. We never FullDove for the fighting.

"That, my friends, is what we call a dungeon gate. Once we open that door, we might not be able to leave the room inside it until the boss inside there is dead," I warned. Most of the people with me sighed. I approached the gate and pushed with some effort into it. The door opened with a loud scrambling and scratching of the ground, giving me a severe case of goosebumps. The door opened to a large hall with a skeletal figure in a robe and a crown on his head sitting on a throne. He had a group of around thirty sentinels stationed in front of him. These were all skeletal but had gloves on them lined with spikes. They wore metal helmets that covered the upper half of their skulls and they wore nothing. Once we entered inside, the entire room illuminated into a blue light which allowed us to see the entire spectacle with our own two eyes. The Skeletal boss was called the Skeletal King Lucius. Immediately as I saw his name, I noticed the four health bars stacked on top of each other. I knew he was a boss at that time. His level, however, took me completely by surprise. He was a level 40 boss. Since I just leveled to level 18 recently, I sure as hell was scared of what might happen. By the time the skeletal king saw us, he opened his mouth and uttered words. This sure as hell surprised me that a boss enemy could talk.

"What brings you hear, lowly mortal?" The king asked in a booming voice which allowed him to seem a lot bigger than he actually was, which was around 7ft.

"We want to go to the outer rim. To do so, we have inadvertently stepped into your realm. We beg for your forgiveness," I said in a formal tone. This might have been the first time I was actually this afraid to lose anything in a game. I knew that with a little struggle, we could bring him down, but it could cost the loss of one of my subordinates' life.

"Do you, now? You mortals are so simple when meet with the prospect of loss. You certainly are different from the other mortal that visited me. He had a strange name, PoH. He came to me in search for an alliance, but I cast him out of my dungeon after he killed a sizable amount of my men in a flurry of rage due to his rejection," he stated. PoH? I sure hope he doesn't give me any trouble. I was mystified by this new presence, PoH. He did not sound like someone to joke around with. "Ah, but I digress. You wanted to run away like a coward, yes? Running away from a crippled army?" he asked mockingly. I hated myself for conducting myself so cowardly in front of my subordinates, but it couldn't be helped. I didn't want to lose anyone, certainly not because it was my fault. I swallowed my pride and continued talking.

"It is because of that that I don't want to fight you. You're hardly at full strength. Killing you will be nothing but a cinch," I said provokingly. If this NPC was a king, then certainly he would conduct himself as one and know when not to fight, but he had a strange aura around him. It was like a hidden wrath burning like a pot with its lid on, only letting residual heat through it.

"Oh, really? I do not refuse to fight when there's a chance. Men, kill them," he ordered straightforwardly. It was so straightforward, the fact that we were originally talking so nicely with each other, only for him to turn a complete 180 on me. I am stupidly Naive. The sentinels ran at us in a quick pace, more than enough for my subordinates to mobilize without my word. It didn't matter, now, for now wasn't the time to act war-commander. Vinsmoke leaped forwards in a fly-kick sort of pose, digging his foot through the skull of a sentinel, killing it instantly. Just as another sentinel was about to strike him, he threw himself on his back, catching himself before falling on a handstand. He grabbed the offending sentinel with his legs and snapped its neck, killing it too. Before he could look behind himself, another sentinel was about to attack him, had it not been for Tetsu's jumping knee-kick that shattered its skull. This gave Vinsmoke enough time to stand on his legs again. Tetsu and Vinsmoke were back to back, making up for each other's fumbles. Kuro and Shiro were already a terrific team in their own right. As they immersed themselves in the battle, they attacked with swift strikes to the opponent's ribcage, cracking most of them. Their hands were both almost invisible as they attacked with such quick movements. They were also back to back, but their teamwork was impeccable. It was like they were telepathically connected because I never noticed any of them talking to each other. It was surreal to say the least. Hakurai's fighting style was extremely surprising. She was using Judo, which was made for heavier people. She lured her enemies into coming close to her, which she took advantage of by flipping them over, completely shattering their ribcage. Fet and Jax were fighting close to each other. Fet used his strength to lift the skeletons in the air like punching bags, which Jax used to train his skills by pummeling them to death. They discontinued this joke full tactic once they were being attacked on all sides. Fet then used his massive power to slam his enemies back with his palms, sending most of them flying, dying on impact. After around a minute of this chaos, the last sentinel headed towards me, running rapidly with an arm stretched far behind him, ready to release an extreme punch. Before he did so, I jabbed him on his face, a boxing technique that I learnt from observing Jax. The skull shattered upon impact due to the force behind it.

"Well, well, well. I guess my army has been vanquished. Time for the king to step in," he said as he stood up. He jumped off from his throne that was raised on a high platform. The impact from his landing raised dust where I stood. He stood up slowly and assessed my division. "A motley bunch, indeed. Let me not lie to you, mortal. I know that my existence will cease this day. I will, however, still fight you in my full strength," the king told me. I realized how tragic this entire thing was.

"A ruler of nothing does not deserve to be a ruler," I told him in an attempt to dishearten him.

"I know that. My army is gone. There is little I can do to raise a new one. I am no longer a king, but a warrior," he told me proudly. He approached me until he was around five meters away from me. He looked down at me due to his height as I looked up at his empty eye-sockets. "Now, we fight," he said as he lunged towards me in a quick dash. He charged up a punch before releasing it to me. It was too quick to evade, so I tried guarding with ki. Although the ki took most of the brunt, it still hurt like hell. The stone ground I was standing in was shredded by my feet due to the force of the push. I remained upstanding, however, so all was still well.

"Still alive, are we? This will be good," the king stated with what sounded like the voice of a grinning man. I shook the shock off and approached him cautiously. He was also moving slowly, looking for any opening to attack. I was too. The king was fast, but I was agiler. His large stature prevented him from striking accurately. I had no such weakness. As he went for the initiative again and threw a punch, I managed to grab a hold onto the forearm and pulled him downwards towards me before punching him in the side of his head with enough strength to crack his skull a little, making a fissure run through it completely. He was blown back by the impact. As he stood up again to attack, I got there quickly with a dash and side-kicked him in the skull, cracking his neck by a little. I checked his healthbar and I already dug through the first one and made some damage to the second one. I jumped back to replenish some stamina. He stood up, this time uninterrupted.

"Tsk, tsk tsk, it's bad to strike an opponent on the ground," he told me. I didn't really care for chivalry at this point, so I believed that everything was currently permissible. He dashed towards me, this time feigning a punch. He instead hook-kicked me, sending me thudding to the ground with force enough to make me dizzy. I check my health bar and see that I've only got three quarters of health left. Three more strikes and I'm out. I picked myself up quickly and brushed off my dizziness. I look him in the eyes before unleashing a flurry of punches targeting his abdominal area. Most of the strikes were blocked, but some got through. I was straying from my martial art at that point, so I reverted quickly to perform a low kick on his shin, so as to debilitate his movement. Stunned by the kick, I kicked backwards to have a better view of him. I run towards him quickly and jump to perform a hook kick with added force from the jump. I manage to hit his skull so badly, a chunk of it flew away and the stone floor cracked at his force. Before he could stand up, performed a straight kick at his chin, roughing him up a little. As he stood up, he managed to grab a hold of my leg. He pulled and I lost balance. He stood up, holding me upside down while he lectured me.

"You fight like a coward. You are so afraid of anything bad happening, you choose to omit any sort of chivalry," he told me. Pretty spot on actually. I just don't like the feeling of guilt. I've already got enough of that for an entire lifetime.

"I don't like feeling responsible for someone's death, sue me," I told him cynically.

He let go of my leg in mid air, before kicking me with such a considerable strength, I lost my breath. It was extremely surreal. My eyesight was failing me and I was seeing tiny white dots in my field of view. Perhaps this is what people call "seeing stars". I wouldn't know. I've never been beaten to that extent. I got up slowly and saw my health. It was dangling above the red zone, making me feel extremely uncomfortable. I tried accessing my inventory but the game-system did not allow me. The inventory option was grayed out. I look at his health bar and he's down to the last one. He's also in the yellow zone in that health bar, so I was happy.

I tried gaining concentration by shaking off all of my fatigue and pain. I was barely able to stand, but after a few seconds, the pain abated. I was ready for one more round. This time, I looked at my ki bar. 600/1200 it read. I've already used half of it during all of this. Time to give the final push. I allocated my ki onto all bodyparts, focusing mostly on elbows, knees, fists and feet. I started to emanate yellow. Before I knew it, I saw my opponent also emanate something. It was a black haze of... ki! He also knew how to use it. Now was not the time for thinking, though. My ki was dropping rapidly and I only had ten seconds left of being in this state. I ran towards him, my ki-hardened body-parts boosting me considerably, and inadvertently got on to all four like a monkey as I ran. I didn't question it at the time, it just felt natural. I lunged at him with my entire body, my fist retracted before releasing a burst of force, all of the ki concentrated in my fist. The skeleton king could not handle all the force. His arms that were guarding him were pulverized by the punch and his ribcage disintegrated. He fell down, completely helpless, but not dead. He was just on the brink of dying. I went down to my knees, vapor escaping from my fatigued body. I was completely exhausted. I looked at my opponent. He was lying there, completely lifeless, before I saw his jaw move.

"You... you really are nothing like that animal PoH," he told me. I simply nodded as I stared at the ceiling.

"I need to make a request of you, mortal. What is your name?" he asked quietly.

"Ryuuma," I answered between gasps.

"Ryuuma, I need to make a request of you. I want you to kill him," he asked. This caught me offguard, but I enquired further.

"Who?" I asked.

"PoH. I want you to kill Prince of Hell," he stated. I raised my eyebrow slightly while looking at him.

* * *

 **WELL, I FINISHED IT FINALLY. I FINALLY DID IT. IT TOOK ME SO LONG. SO MANY HOURS OF REWRITING DELETED SHIT ;-; I did it tho. I feel so relieved.**

 **Please favorite, follow or review this chapter or story if you like it. It gives me so much more motivation to continue when I know that there are people reading my story.**


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